1. REGINA'S Susan Drimlell alld Phi Delta 's Penny Hightower reach for a jump ball as Beth Harp anticipates the tip-off, 2. KA RE TA'S Harriet Huntt' r waits for tile right mornellt to go up for the spike. 3. TAKING time out for a rest, Becky Jordan of Pili Delta and Beta Tau 's Me/an re 'ie~pard talk about tile last race at the annual club track meet. women's varsity programs, A struggle for experience "A girl from my high school was an Olympic silver medalist in basketball and would have come here if we had had a team. Pam Adams (a freshman during the 1978-79 school year) came here one year; in high school she was ranked fifth in Texas women's track," Blackman said. Experience is proof that someone knows what they are supposed to know, However, for Harding University's women physical education majors, such confidence is hard to come by. Harding has no women's varsity sports, no school-sponsored way for women P.E. majors to confirm what their courses have taught them. 'The most important thing to us is getting a Christian education. We love Harding and we keep coming back because of that. Still, we have to live with the disadvantages," said Karen Blackman, a senior who was offered an athletic scholarship at Abilene Christian University. 'There is no doubt that the lack of varsity experience will be a disWITH no intercollegiate sports for women. Lavetta Washington and Chi Lambda Chi take advantage of the U,liversity's womell's intramural program . advantage in getting a job, but our first priority is getting a Christian education," agreed Kristy RolImann a senior who turned down a volleyball scholarship at Oklahoma Christian. Terri Harmon, a sophomore, supported this with a recent experience. She worked in the alumni phone-a-thon to help raise money for the school. "I was given a list of P.E. majors to ca ll . In the course of the conversations, I asked the women graduates if they were using their majors. Two had used them in the past but were not using them anymore. That was all ," she said . The girls garnered some experience from playing for a city basketball team, the Searcy Stars, where their Christian attitudes and sportsmanship represented the town of Searcy, not Harding. AU, however, showed the most concern over the loss of athletic potential and several personal friends, due to Harding's lack of "We have the talent now, without a program, to form a team. If we had one, we could recruit now. The people who come here love ' Harding, but they don't know Harding when they' re picking a school," she added. Each girl interviewed agreed that modesty rules in clothing would be no problem. "We'd buy our own uniforms and comply with any other rules if the school would arrange a schedule and provide time in the gym, " Blackmann said. " It hurts to see your friends leave and go somewhere else because they need sports experience, but it also hurts us profes· sionally to stay here when there is no program. The last inter-school team I played for was my high school team and now I don't feel adequately prepared to teach and coach," said Teresa Moulton, a senior. Judy Bennett, a freshman from FJorida , was a varsity swimmer in high school for three years. She said that members of her swim team had exercised 33 hours a week, including daily swimming totalling 23 hours and 10 hours of weightlifting and running. According to Bennett, "Practice is one big difference between intramural and intercollegiate sports. Intramural and club practices are infrequent and fail to properly condition the players. If you want to get in shape, you have to do it on your own." Bennett, who played volleyball, softball and basketball this year, also noted, "Gi rls who go to college for four years and become a coach without ever playing intercollegiate sports have never had to be in competitive physical condition, and if they don' t know what it's like to really be in shape, when they start coaching they won't know if their students are or not. " - Doug Thompson ffihl 141 Women's Intramurals
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