Women who enjoy partaking in sports, and who will be attending Skyline in fall of 2006, will be welcome to tryout for the upcoming women’s basketball team.

As of fall 2006, Skyline will play host to a women’s basketball team. Roughly 30 years ago, the school had a program, but was discontinued. The team is intercollegiate, fully representing the school, and tryouts will be held in the beginning next semester.

Andreas Wolf, athletic director and physical education dean, explained how Skyline wanted to take a moral standpoint while complying with Title 9, a clause that states all schools must have a gender balance between sports and extracurricular activities.

Wolf also compared the relationship between the school’s male soccer and female soccer teams, explaining that he saw the same possibility with a women’s basketball team. He also spoke about its significance in keeping students in attendance.

“I saw through research,” Wolf said, “that a lot of the girls playing high school basketball in our feeder high schools were leaving the area because we had no program.”

On Monday, April 3, 2006, Brittany Lindhe was hired to coach the girl’s team, beating out three other candidates. Wolf feels confident in the decision to appoint her, in that she has experience coaching colleges, and that she is well aware of different programs used throughout high schools that interact with community and 4-year colleges.

Wolf proposed the idea not only because of Title 9, or to help the lowering attendance problem, but also for reasons a little closer to home. Being a father of a young daughter, Wolf wanted to be able to relate with other fathers and present their children with opportunities not always offered.

“I want [my daughter] to have the same opportunity that her male counterpart does,” Wolf said. “I also want every father and mother in our community to understand that Skyline has shown a commitment to ensuring that our female students have the same opportunity as our male students.”