After Atalanta

Several men in my life* have sent me word of a former female soccer player at LSU who is trying out to be a kicker on the football team. Obviously this is not soooo out of the ordinary. Many people know of the story of Katie Hnida, who actually entered college with intentions of being a kicker on the football team. After a troubling (to put it mildly) time at Colorado, Hnida went to New Mexico where she became the first woman to put points on the scoreboard in a DI football game. So Mo Isom is not going to have that "first" opportunity. But it seems that she has a lot more support than Hnida received (at least when she was at Colorado). LSU coach Les Miles is giving her a fair shot at a spot on the team. She has had access to LSU football staff as she goes through the tryout process. What I find interesting is the reporting on the story. This is the headline from one of the links I received. It is from The Advocate, which seems to be a local paper out of Baton Rouge. LSU...

Tonight the women of LSU (please find conspicuous the absence of the phrase Lady Tigers) will play against Louisville for a spot in the Sweet Sixteen. It will likely be an uphill battle for LSU but it's been a pretty "upsetting" tourney so far so we shall see... Former LSU superstar Sylvia Fowles will not be there to root on her alma mater. She's in Russia. Moscow specifically playing for Spartak along with UConn alums Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi. Actually most of the stars of the WNBA (well not Parker because she's pregnant and on the cover of ESPN Magazine and all that) are overseas playing this time of year. It's a good gig for most. Better than the one they have here playing for the WNBA. I've talked about this before. But the feature on Fowles reminded me just how lucrative it is there and how...well...not...it is here. (Note the irony--former communist country there, adamant capitalists here...) No one will say how much she is making playing for Spart...

As came up during the recent discussion of Elena Delle Donne's transfer from UConn, it's not as if this kind of thing hadn't happened before. And it certainly wasn't the last incident--even of the 2008-2009 season. LSU announced that first-year guard Crystal Riley will be granted a full release so she can pursue the sport at another university. Riley was not exactly a benchwarmer. She played in six games already this season. Maybe some of my colleagues at Women's Hoops Blog can fill in some blanks??

Mechelle Voepel runs down who's who and what's what in college hoops this season, coaching changes mostly. So if you were in a coma last season and just awoke check out her column--smart and witty as usual--to find out who's out and who's in and who went overseas. The latter refers to former LSU head coach Pokey Chatman who resigned right before her team went into the NCAA tournament due to allegations of improper conduct with a former player. Chatman settled her complaint with LSU for $160,000 which precludes her from further legal action. The settlement though does not seem to contain a gag order but that does not mean anyone is talking. Chatman isn't saying anything about the incident in question including denying it. So she has been exiled to Russia where she will be coaching. Given the allegations, an overseas job was probably the only thing she could get right now. But will she be back? I want to say yes, but something in me says no--oh yeah, it's that ra...

LSU announced a couple of weeks ago now that they had found a new head coach for the women's basketball team. They hired Van Chancellor, a former WNBA, Olympic, and intercollegiate coach. I did not blog about it then because all I had to say about it was this: I am certainly not surprised LSU went with a male coach.* I am pleased that at least it is a coach who has substantial experience coaching women's basketball but I think LSU could have made a strong statement by hiring a woman and I worry about the repercussions the Chatman incident will have on other hiring decisions. But I had nothing else of substance to say about the decision. The New York Times, however, has delved a little deeper . The article examines the decline of female head coaches and cites the big names in the sport sociology/sport management field who all, not surprisingly, agree that the fear of predatory lesbians is a huge factor in the lack of women head coaches in intercollegiate athletics. This is still...