Hard Choices -- Mother, Teacher, Coach: Too Great A Burden?

Jeanne Helfer loves coaching so much, she probably would do it for free.

"I think I'm ripping people off," she said of her role as girls basketball coach and physical education teacher at Spokane's Mead High School. "I can't believe I get paid for this."

The payback for Mead has been two Class AAA state championships in the past three years. But Helfer, 33, faces the prospect of giving up her old love for a new one, daughter Amanda Jo, born last December.

If she is unable to balance the mothering/teaching/coaching load in the 1992-93 school year, Helfer will become another in a long line of lost female role models for female high-school athletes. The tug-of-war between family and professional concerns apparently is one of the primary forces driving them away.

"I have to see if I can juggle all the different responsibilities and still feel I'm doing an OK job," said Helfer, who as Jeanne Eggart was a Walla Walla High School and Washington State University basketball star. "If not, the first one to go is coaching."

Jeannine Ewing, who coached Redmond to the state Class AAA slowpitch softball championship last month and is a successful girls basketball coach as well, understands. Ewing, 33, plans to marry in the next year and eventually might have to give up either softball or basketball.

"If I can't do a good job, I'm going to get out," she said.

The exodus of women coaches at the high-school level has been a

shocking trend in the state since Title IX began opening athletic doors for females 20 years ago. The number of women as varsity coaches of girls teams has plummeted from 85 percent in 1973-74 to 24 percent this past school year. Only two girls sports, volleyball and gymnastics, have more women head coaches than men.

In basketball, the most visible girls sport, the figure plummeted from 91 percent to 16 percent.

"We're leaving and we're leaving in droves," said Nancy Zehnder, Auburn's volleyball and softball head coach since 1975. "I'm not trying to say men shouldn't coach girls, but this exodus is incredible."

Said Linda Sheridan, who has coached Shadle Park of Spokane to two Class AAA volleyball and two AAA girls basketball titles, "Title IX hasn't helped women coaches. It's helped women athletes."

Why aren't there more women coaches? Lingering pockets of sex discrimination combine with frequent instances of isolation, lack of support, increased time commitment, parental pressures and burnout as key barriers. In more than 40 interviews with coaches and administrators around the state, the traditional female role as family caretaker emerged as a major reason for the decrease in their numbers.

Terri Herren, Auburn gymnastics coach who had a baby at the beginning of the 1991-92 season, said she still feels strong family obligations despite the help of her husband.

"I still feel responsible for having dinner ready when I get home from practice and cleaning up, although he'll do the dishes," said Herren, who has two other children, ages 6 and 3. "If you don't have a husband to help, I can't imagine doing it."

Herren often takes her children to practice.

"We talk to them and play with them and it's just a part of practice that they're there," said gymnast Jennifer Toulouse, a senior at Auburn this fall.

Many longtime coaches such as Zehnder and Sheridan, do not have children. "I can't imagine doing this with a couple of kids," Zehnder said.

Some men also are leaving the ranks because of the year-round coaching required to keep up in some sports, as well as the outside pressures. Zehnder has given up softball for next year, in part because she wants more time for herself.

"I have a friend whose sister is a nun and her social life is better than mine," she said.

Discrimination against women candidates appears to be lessening, but it still occurs.

"We are fighting a good-old-boys system," Zehnder said. "Often, the perception is you have to be twice as good to be just as respected."

Tammy Taylor, girls soccer coach at Decatur and assistant softball coach at Jefferson, was passed over last year for the head softball position at Federal Way in favor of a man. The hiring was done by a male administrator no longer at the school.

Taylor believes her sex was an issue. "He wanted a man in there," Taylor said of the administrator. "He said, `Well, I would like you to be his JV coach.' But I said, `That's OK. . . .' "

In 1983, Kathy Randall was hired at Auburn to teach physical education and, she thought, to be head boys track coach. Upon arriving that fall, however, she was told the coaching job was given to a man. An assistant's spot was added for her.

"Would they do that to a man? No way," Zehnder said. "Would the same thing happen today? I'm not sure."

Women still have to fight gender bias within the community. Zehnder, who coached Auburn to two state softball titles, said she was incredulous to learn of a comment made by a parent of one of her players at the district slowpitch tournament last month.

"He said, `We would have done better if we were coached by a man,' " she said.

Women coaches fared well at the state level this school year. Not only did Helfer and Ewing win titles, but Sandy Schneider guided Seattle's Lakeside to its third Class AA girls basketball crown in four years. The AAA volleyball and girls soccer, gymnastics (all classifications) and AA volleyball championships also were won by teams with women coaches.

When Title IX provided the athletic opportunities 20 years ago, many women offered to coach "just because it needed to be done," Zehnder said.

As girls athletics gained prestige and salaries increased, men saw another avenue to coach. Many times, they had more experience than women candidates, who likely did not have the opportunity to play competitive sports or coach previously.

Once men took over, many found they enjoyed coaching girls more than boys, and they've stayed.

Athletic directors say they would love to hire more women coaches, but claim there are a lack of qualified candidates.

"We've got excellent female coaches," said Dave Lutes, Kent School District athletic director, "but there aren't enough of them. We're constantly on the lookout for good female role models for our female athletes. The No. 1 criteria is hiring the most qualified candidate."

Most athletic directors say if all else is equal, they prefer to hire women coaching girls.

But Chris Gobrecht, University of Washington women's basketball coach, says females who show promise should be given the edge even if they are slightly less qualified because they generally have access only to 50 percent of the coaching jobs - those for girls sports. Few women in the state coach boys or even co-ed sports, with soccer and tennis the usual exceptions.

Schneider, Lakeside girls basketball coach who doubles as athletic director, disagrees.

"My premise is you want to hire the most qualified person," she said. "If the two candidates are equally talented, hire the female candidate. But if the female candidate's not as strong, you shouldn't pick her."

Helfer agrees. "I hope I never get chosen for a job because I'm a female," she said, "but because I'm the most qualified."

Zehnder challenges athletic directors to actively recruit women coaches, rather than simply wait for a job application.

"If they want to find head coaches, they could go out and find one," she said. "Don't give women a handout. Give us a hand up."

Barbara Berry, former Bellevue Community College women's basketball coach, was all but begged to take the girls basketball position at Mercer Island this season, which she did, taking the Islanders to the state tournament. Bellevue's Newport High recently hired C.J. Sealey, former Sammamish and Seattle University standout, as head girls basketball coach.

Most people agree more qualified candidates, former high-school athletes, are on their way into the coaching market. Many of them had role models as coaches and see it as a viable profession. However, many still are not choosing to become teachers, which often creates roadblocks in their hiring as coaches. In-district personnel generally have first crack at coaching jobs, although neither Berry nor Sealey are teachers.

Zehnder said women coaches also need administrative support and mentors.

"We don't want to be babysat," she said. "We want to be respected and helped. We don't want them to be our dads, but we need them as our mentors . . . We're not talking about Xs and Os, but talking about parental pressure, making budgets, talking to newspaper reporters."

Women coaches need to help themselves, too, by doing a better job of networking and sharing information.

"I'm not angry anymore," Zehnder said. "For me, this isn't an us-against-them issue . . . We as women coaches need to help our own."

. . FEWER WOMEN.

Although Title IX legislation in 1972 has increased participation for girls, the number of women high-school coaches has declined dramatically in the state since 1973-74. Totals and percentages of male and female coaches in varsity girls sports:. . .

Female Male. . Yrs. No. Pct. No. Pct.. . '73-74 1003 85 183 15. . '75-76 872 67 355 27. . '77-78 728 54 575 43. . '78-79 682 50 625 46. . '81-82 513 38 727 54. . '83-84 512 31 1021 61. . '84-85 488 29 1027 61. . '85-86 579 33 1126 64. . '86-87 553 31 1107 63. . '87-88 493 27 1173 64. . '88-89 503 23 1476 66. . '89-90 551 24 1496 66. . '90-91 526 23 1479 65. . '91-92 554 24 1539 66. . . Figures for 1974-75, '76-77, '79-80, '80-81, '82-83 not available; figures for open positions not included.. . Source: WIAA.