By Julia Mericle
Managing Editor
When Paula Scraba, associate professor of physical education, played basketball at the University of Connecticut (UConn), all of the women’s athletic teams shared one set of uniforms. Her team drove themselves to competitions. If they wanted to eat, they might have gotten $2, she said.
When Scraba joined the swim team at UConn the following year, she received two sets of competitive uniforms and two sets of practice uniforms, which were washed daily. She rode on a chartered bus to competitions and received two full meals per trip.
These differences resulted from the fact that the swim team fell under men’s athletics, since both the men’s and women’s swim teams shared the same coach.
Scraba, Ph.D., fought for Title IX during her time in college. Now she directs Women and Girls in Sports Day at St. Bonaventure University and recently received a Women’s Lifetime Achievement Award from the Zonta Club of Olean, an international organization of professionals committed to improving the status of women through service and advocacy.
“Every right has a corresponding duty and responsibility,” Scraba said. “As far as me being one of the people that had to fight for those rights, you don’t want to see it abused.”
Ann Marie Sitter-Tompkins, who nominated Scraba for the award, said hearing Scraba tell her story was the first time she had heard about the struggles before Title IX from someone who had experienced them.
“To hear her story about the actual discrimination of women in sports was shocking,” Sitter-Tomkins, a lecturer in the school of education, said.
Bonaventure will celebrate the 30th annual national Women and Girls in Sports Day by welcoming high schoolers to campus on Friday, April 22.
This year’s event has a record 22 schools committed to sending students, above the average of 15 schools per year that attended in the past, said Scraba.
Scraba, who received her bachelor’s degree in physical education and master’s degrees in special physical education and Franciscan studies, said the intention of the day is to remember the purpose behind the federal Title IX legislation and to provide more opportunities for girls and women in sports.
Efforts like this and her work with Special Olympics earned Scraba the award from Zonta, according to Sitter-Tompkins.
“She is truly one of the most selfless people I know,” Sitter-Tompkins said. “She has this way of approaching people and making you want to give.”
Scraba described receiving the award as humbling.
“It’s kind of like there are some things you do on a daily basis or you do over time and you just do it because it needs to be done,” Scraba said.
Bonaventure first started participating in national Women and Girls in Sports Day in the late 1990s, but Scraba has been planning the event since 2007.
Ink Young, this year’s keynote speaker and the senior wellness director at the YMCA of the Twin Tiers, will discuss “Nutrition and Exercise: Influences and Effects on the Female Athlete.”
Scraba said she looks at the day as an admissions event. She does not charge schools to attend, but relies on the generosity of the Bonaventure students, athletes and coaches.
SBU students donated lunches from their meal plans. ROTC will facilitate the rock wall and provide a fitness challenge for the visiting students, Scraba said.
A student-athlete panel will add something new to this year’s events. At the start of the day, visiting students will have the opportunity to submit questions and the student-athlete panel will answer those questions during lunchtime, Scraba said.
“Women in Sports Day is to provide opportunities for the next generation that can learn the ropes with a Division I athlete. It’s the domino effect,” Scraba said.
Scraba said each year she tries to coordinate the day with an athletic event on campus. This year, visiting students will be able to attend a women’s lacrosse game at 4 p.m.
Despite the great improvements that have been made, the number of opportunities for women and girls in sports nationwide is still at a C+, according to Scraba.
“If a school does not comply with Title IX, in regards to equity in sports for women, the worst that can happen is they get their hand slapped and the feds threaten to take away their funding, which means they threaten to take away their free lunch program,” Scraba said.
She said this illustrates the importance of continuing Women and Girls in Sports Day. Scraba said when she is asked why there is no “men and boys in sports day,” she explains that there has always been the opportunity in sports for men. She said women were not allowed to major in physical education until 1980 at Bonaventure.
“We need to continue to remind people, especially school administrators and athletic directors, that we are only just breaking ground after all these years,” Scraba said.
mericlje13@bonaventure.edu
