Four months prior to joining the Northeast Conference, I graduated from a tiny historically women’s college two hours west of Boston. Despite falling into New England’s prolific sports region, athletics were foreign to my former classmates. They would be hard pressed to even name the Division III program’s mascot. With an emphasis on a true liberal arts curriculum, the college was blind to areas such as sports information and business. Nevertheless, I was intent on pursuing a career in athletic communications and secured internships in adjacent fields during my undergraduate years. Though these served as tremendous foundational learning experiences, my superiors were almost entirely men. Their backgrounds were so vastly different than my own that it became increasingly difficult to envision myself in their shoes.
 
As last August faded and gave way to the start of the academic year, I had the opportunity to sit down with the NEC’s Casey Snedecor, the lone female head Sports Information Director/Assistant AD in the league.  A decade before my own athletic career began, Snedecor had played in the very same Division III conference I later competed in. She shared with me stories of her time as an undergraduate at a small Massachusetts school, her early career path which included a stint at a newspaper just as mine had, and her nine years at LIU preceded by stretches at fellow Division I institutions. We had been presented with similar opportunities early on and now here she was, the SID chair of the Northeast Conference. For the first time, I was in contact with not only an industry leader, but one who had followed a path similar to my own.
 
Led by one of the NCAA’s few female commissioners, Noreen Morris, the NEC demonstrates a continual commitment to gender equity. The conference currently boasts a greater number of female athletic directors, conference staff members and head coaches than the national average. Just as I now have numerous women within the conference office and member institutions to aspire to, including Snedecor and Morris, hundreds of NEC student-athletes are able to see their future selves in their very own coaches and administrators on a regular basis.
 
Nonetheless, collegiate sports are still a long way from achieving total gender equity. As Title IX nears its 50-year anniversary, the NCAA provides substantial data to measure the status of women in collegiate sports. With the help of nine notable NEC women, I evaluated not only gender equity at the national level, but also the NEC’s place within the landscape.

When Title IX was signed into law in 1972 the amendment effectively revolutionized the landscape of collegiate athletics by mandating equal access to federal resources and opportunities for both men and women. Prior to Title IX, women were not eligible to receive collegiate athletic scholarships or participate in NCAA championships.
 
Although not mentioned directly in the federal law, Title IX ensures equal access by enforcing three mandates of athletic departments. First, men and women must be granted equitable opportunities to participate in sports. This does not require men’s and women’s teams for every sport, but rather balanced opportunities to play. Secondly, male and female student-athletes must be offered athletic scholarship dollars proportionate to their participation. Finally, female athletes must be given the same access to resources and provisions as their male counterparts. These include, but are not limited to locker rooms and facilities, field time, and equipment expenses.
 
Today, women’s teams competing in NCAA championship sports outnumber men’s teams in a 10 to 9 ratio. Nearly 90,000 scholarship-receiving women make up these teams in DI with another 132,000 female student-athletes competing at the Division II and Division III levels. Title IX has not only allowed women to compete in collegiate athletics, but encouraged increased participation at all levels. Despite these advances, inequity continues to persist throughout collegiate athletics. This occurs both on the playing fields and at administrative levels.
 
“I don’t know if a (completely Title IX compliant department) exists in our current state of college athletics,” says Snedecor. “I am the only woman in the room when we have our NEC SID meetings. I remember at my first professional conference I was one of about 15 women at a conference of 300 people.”
 
After receiving her undergraduate degree, Snedecor pursued a master’s degree in Sports Management from California University of Pennsylvania. During this program, she took a course dedicated solely to Title IX and the expanded rights of women in collegiate athletics.
 
“I realized how much of an opportunity that I’d had that hadn’t come for even the generation before me,” Snedecor said.  “I walk a weird line because I kind of love that (current female student-athletes) have no idea this law exists…that they don’t think about, for example, our women’s basketball players don’t think about the fact they get everything the men get. It’s just assumed, and they don’t realize in my lifetime that’s a change that has occurred.”
 
Nearly 50 years after Title IX, federally funded programs still do not need to be entirely equitable to be compliant, rather they just need to demonstrate steps in the right direction. An institution is considered in compliance with Title IX if the institution is fully and effectively accommodating the interests and abilities of the underrepresented sex. They may also be compliant if the number of male and female athletes is substantially proportionate to the institution’s overall enrollment or if the school has a history and continuing practice of expanding participation opportunities for women.

Growing up, Morris found herself directly at the cornerstone of women’s expanded rights in athletics. As a young athlete in Title IX’s first decade, Morris remembers the limited opportunities for girls in sport.
 
“I wanted to play soccer along with my younger brother. We went to sign up for the soccer league and they called my dad the next day and said, ‘This is a boys league, she can’t play.’ There was no girls league. Since my dad had already written the check, and they had taken it, he said, ‘I’ve paid so she’s going to play.’ I was the only girl in the whole league for that year and it took probably three or four years before they actually started a league for girls. I went to junior high and there was no team for me to play on. Then when I got to high school still no team. So I actually petitioned the Board of Ed and went out and got signatures and spoke in front of the Board of Ed. My sophomore year was the first year we had a girls soccer team.”
 
Her commitment paid off when, in 1983, she joined Cornell University’s first recruited class of women’s soccer players. The team was in its infancy having launched just one year prior with a group of club athletes who transitioned to the Division I level. A two-year captain and four-year letterwinner, Morris graduated 15 years after the implementation of Title IX.
 
In her current role as NEC Commissioner, Morris is committed to expanding athletic and administrative opportunities for women throughout the conference and beyond.
 
“I think it’s essential to see that there are women in leadership positions that you can aspire to,” said Morris. “The old mantra is if you can see her you can be her. If you don’t see anyone in those leadership positions, and if you don’t have someone mentoring you, it’s really hard to even envision that you can be in that role."

While Title IX increased participation and resources available for female student-athletes, the act had the adverse effect on coaching staffs. In 1972, the vast majority of women’s teams were led by women. Today, that number has dropped to around 43 percent, less than half of the prior amount.
 
If Title IX was supposed to increase opportunities for women, why are we seeing this downward trend among coaches? The answer is simple: as women’s teams have gained prominence, head coaching roles have become more lucrative causing more men to apply for these positions. Essentially, the market for NCAA coaching positions doubled for men. The same cannot be said for women, who only account for 4 percent of men’s teams’ head coaches.
 
Additionally, there is a clear positive correlation between programs with male athletic directors and the number of male coaches. In 2019, 86 percent of Division I athletic directors were male.
 
“The people in the hiring positions - athletic directors, university presidents, people in administration, are normally males and sometimes males prefer to see people that they’re comfortable with which is often males as well,” observed Saint Francis U women’s basketball head coach Keila Whittington.
 
Whittington was named the newest leader of the Red Flash in April of 2019. Despite holding assistant positions at major DI institutions, including Louisiana, Oregon and Penn State, where she contributed to an Elite Eight and two Sweet Sixteen runs, she had not previously held a head coach position.
 
“We have to keep knocking on the door. We have to keep being persistent, and I was persistent. I had been an assistant coach for 25 years and in the 26^th year here I am a first-time head coach. It’s about not letting people discourage you from the dreams you want for yourself,” says Whittington.

Thinking Out Of The Box

A product of commitments made at both the conference and institutional levels, the NEC is the only Division I league where all the women’s basketball programs are led by female head coaches. Among these coaching staffs, 72 percent of assistants are female and three teams boast fully female staffs. Stepping back to look at the administrators that made this possible, the NEC is one of only three conferences with a female commissioner and at least two female athletic directors.
 
“The NEC has been working diligently on our strategic plan. One of our four goals is a commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. So, as a conference, we’ve committed to it, but it only works if our institutions also commit to it and bring it to fruition. They’ve done that with the women’s basketball coaches,” says Commissioner Morris.
 
This has been accomplished, most notably, by athletic directors and search committees increasing applicant pools when considering who will lead their programs.
 
“These athletic directors and presidents have really expanded their field of candidates. They’ve widened their scope,” explained former Wagner women’s basketball head coach and current NEC women’s basketball TV analyst Pam Roecker. “They have an open mind in terms of looking at the top Division II coaches and the top assistant coaches.”
 
Including Whittington, four of the NEC’s ten women’s basketball coaches are in their first head coaching roles after moving through the assistant ranks.
 
LIU’s Rene Haynes spent five seasons as an assistant at Duke before joining the Sharks in April of 2019. The 2019-2020 season also marked Farleigh Dickinson’s Angelika Szumilo first season at the helm. Szumlio was formerly an assistant at LIU and Monmouth before accepting associate head coach positions at Monmouth then Fordham. Sacred Heart brought Jessica Mannetti in to lead their program back in 2014. Mannetti was previously a four-year assistant at Hofstra.
 
In addition to drawing talent from assistant pools, NEC schools have also sought leaders of Division II and III programs.
 
“As positions become vacant, different schools have looked to some of the Division II coaches where they have been successful in their own programs at that level and they’ve pulled them up to the Division I level,” explained Bryant’s Head Coach Mary Burke.
 
Burke, the NEC’s longest tenured women’s basketball coach, offers anecdotal evidence of success in this space. In 2007, Bryant announced it would be moving from DII to DI before becoming a full member of the NEC in 2012.
 
Burke not only led her team through this evolution, but also proved to be a competitive force at the top level. “We transitioned extremely well. We finished sixth in the league our first year. I had a first team all-conference player. We did very well. I think a lot of that can be attributed to competing in the Northeast-10 and the quality of coaches that I competed against for so many years. DII was definitely a great training ground for me to really continue to grow as a coach and put together a system and program that I felt was going to be successful for a long time.”
 
Coach Burke finds herself in the company of three other current head coaches with experience in the “training ground” of DII and DIII.
 
Mount St. Mary’s Maria Marchesano led two Division II programs before making her way to the Mount by way of an associate head coaching gig at DI IUPUI. In 2012, Marchesano was able to turn around a struggling Urbana University team, a feat that earned her DII Coach of the Year honors.
 
“There has been a real conscious effort of the athletic directiors and Noreen’s leadership with the athletics directors,” notes Mount St. Mary’s Athletic Director Lynne Robinson, “We make sure that we’re interviewing women on our searches and making sure we have a diverse candidate pool in many ways. Sometimes it is the out of the box candidate that maybe doesn’t have all of the experience but that presents a whole other skill set and a way to connect with our young women.”
 
Even less traditionally, Merrimack’s Kelly Morrone made the jump to DI from DIII. Morrone was previously the head coach at John Carroll where she posted four 20+ win seasons during her seven-year stint. She also led her team to a pair of Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) regular season titles, an OAC conference tournament title and the program’s first three NCAA tournament berths.
 
Wagner’s Heather Jacobs has roots in both DII and DIII. In 2007, she was the youngest head coach in the NCAA leading Daniel Webster. After leaving Daniel Webster after three seasons, Jacobs was named head coach of DII Adelphi. During the 2014-15 season. Jacobs’ team tied the program record for most wins in a single-season while securing their first ever NE-10 title. Her success earned her ECAC Division II and All-MBWA Coach of the Year honors.
 
Despite hailing from atypical backgrounds, these coaches have made their marks on the NEC. Last season, Mount St. Mary’s finished the season as the number two tournament seed while Merrimack finished third in its first year making the jump to the DI level. Expanding candidate recruiting pools not only introduced more diversity into the coaching ranks but showed that talent crosses divisional lines.

While these coaches are enjoying their own successes, they are also building a foundation of young, diverse coaches to continue to fill the ranks.
 
“When you think about it, the next pipeline of head coaches are assistant coaches,” says Commissioner Morris. “We are modeling and being able to build that pipeline.”
 
Linda Cimino’s all-female staff at St. Francis Brooklyn offers a prime example of this. Both of the Terriers’ assistant coaches, Jessica Coscia and Alyssa Ewing James, competed under Cimino during their playing careers at Caldwell and Binghamton, respectively. The team’s Director of Basketball Operations, Kennedy Thompson, also competed for Binghamton alongside Ewing James. Over the duration of her career, Cimino has had 12 of her former players work with her on staff.
 
 “It’s not just about having all females but preparing them to be head coaches. If you went to a practice, you’re not just listening to the head coach, you’re listening to all the other young women who also have their voice,” notes St. Francis Brooklyn’s Director of Athletics Irma Garcia. “They always say, ‘There’s not enough female coaches.’ Well then get that one coach that’s maybe just young and teach them!”
 
Across the Verrazano Bridge, Wagner’s coaching staff features former teammates Sade Jackson and Tara Flynn who competed under Jacobs during her time at Adelphi.
 
Around the league, women’s basketball coaches provide student-athletes with role models they can aspire to be.
 
“When you see it then you can be it,” reiterates Coach Burke, “I think it’s important for young women to see that it is acceptable to be a strong, competitive and passionate woman. When they see that, they know as they grow up that’s acceptable and that’s their kind of path and mentality going into the real world. I can’t say enough about how important it is for women to go into coaching.”
 
While change in this space comes from the top down, it is the responsibility of coaches to train the next generation of leaders. By providing opportunities as assistants, NEC coaches have done just this. As a result, the conference will continue to churn out not just great student-athletes, but future administrators and coaches as well.

When Garcia was named St. Francis Brooklyn’s Director of Athletics in 2007, she became the first Latina Director of Athletics in the entirety of DI. While women face issues of gender discrimination and reduced employment opportunities, these barriers to entry are amplified for women of color. According to the NCAA’s most recent demographic data, 14 percent of DI Athletic Directors are female. Of this group, only 3 percent are women of color. This is not a representative sample for female student-athletes of color who make up 18 percent of all DI athletes.
 
This issue persists at the coaching level as well. Of all DI women’s sports, 40 percent are led by women. Just 8 percent of these coaches are women of color.
 
When Haynes was named head coach at LIU prior to last season, she brought with her a diverse coaching staff comprised of three women (two of which are women of color) and a black man. This was no accident. “With our staff, I think they’re great, but I do think that representation matters. Something I pride in as well is bringing diversity to the NEC with my staff, and again, representation matters…diversity was very important to me as I created the staff that I felt would be the best role models for the players.”

Haynes also reflects on her ability to be a source of inspiration for athletes on her competitors’ teams.  “Other than being that role model and that mentor for my players, I am a mentor for other players on other teams that see me in my position. It is really important to have that minority representation.”

“Student athletes want to see people who look like them,” said Whittington, further driving home the importance of representation. “They want to see strong women, women in power, women who can speak confidently, women who they can trust, and women who can lead.”
 
Women’s basketball, specifically, reports the highest amount of ethnic diversity among athletes. In 2019, 45 percent of women’s basketball players were black women, outnumbering white women by over 10 percent and other women of color by 22 percent.
 
Direct representation among the coaching ranks of women’s basketball teams is so crucial for this reason. These athletes wish to see people that not only look like them but are able to understand the complexities and struggles of their daily lives. Representation offers not only a source of hope and motivation for the future, but also solace in the present.

At the national level, we are still far from achieving true gender equity. The Northeast Conference, however, continues to be a prime example of progress and increased opportunities for women and minority coaches at the DI level. Intentional hiring practices, which include less traditional candidates and more candidates of color, have contributed to the NEC’s forward strides while establishing a pipeline of future coaches. Be it in their coaches, administrators, or even in the conference staff, NEC student-athletes have a unique opportunity to see themselves at the next level.
 
“If you can see it, you can be it.”
 
I saw my elusive “it” when sitting down Snedecor for the first time. She conducted her interview in front of a light blue canvas emblazoned with the LIU shark logo. While this is common, even expected, for press functions at the DI level, I was reminded of the interviews I recorded back in college in front of starkly bare walls. While my college experience did not offer fruitful opportunities in sports, the NEC experience has opened new doors. Last August, two former DIII social science majors met over Zoom. This was all it took for me to be able to envision my own sports information future: a friendly interview in front of a handful of logos.
 
Just as the conference has for me, the NEC continuously provides student-athletes the opportunity to see their own “it.”