Growing up when Title IX was in its infancy, Suzie McConnell Serio began playing basketball on a boy's team when she was in fourth grade. Today, this former Women's National Basketball Association player, Olympic champion, and 35-year-old mother knows that all of her four children will enjoy center court. She knows that because of Title IX.

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 is a federal law that mandates high schools and colleges receiving federal funds must provide equal opportunities for men and women in educational programs and activities.

It requires that opportunities be provided so men and women can participate in athletics in equal numbers, that the same amount of scholarship money be given to both men and women, and that the same level of equipment and facilities be provided.

"We didn't have a girls team," says Serio, who now coaches Oakland Catholic High School's girl's basketball team in her hometown of Pittsburgh, PA. "I would tag along to basketball practice with my brothers and shoot baskets on the sidelines."

Recognizing exceptional talent when he saw it, the coach asked if she would be interested in playing on the boy's team. Her parents were reluctant, but the youngster was persuasive.

"For two years, my younger sister Kathy and I played boy's basketball," Serio recalls. "It sparked an interest among the girls, and we started a girl's team when I was in sixth grade."

The first year of the girl's program, the team snagged the runner-up slot among competing schools in the Diocese of Pittsburgh. Serio went on to snag her dream of playing professional women's basketball.

"I had the opportunity of a lifetime to play with the WNBA," Serio says.

Prior to retiring to raise her three girls and one boy, Serio had a career as a professional basketball player with the Cleveland Rockers and even bested fellow players to win a slot on the 1998 All-WNBA team. Does she think Title IX or the vision and tenacity of coaches involved in women's basketball helped make the difference?

Prior to retiring to raise her three girls and one boy, Serio had a career as a professional basketball player with the Cleveland Rockers and even bested fellow players to win a slot on the 1998 All-WNBA team. Does she think Title IX or the vision and tenacity of coaches involved in women's basketball helped make the difference?

"Just look at the salaries that female coaches are now being paid," she says. "I can't say that it's equal across the board to what men are making, but it's shown that universities and colleges have made a commitment to female athletics."

As a high school coach, Serio sees first-hand how many athletes are committing time and effort to be the best in one particular sport.

"Parents and players see the writing on the wall," she says. "They recognize the opportunities available through college scholarships and the potential of playing professionally."

Leveling the Field for Everyone
Florida attorney Nancy Hogshead-Makar, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, says Title IX is about opportunity for all youngsters, not just those who are seen as natural athletes.

"It's important not to think of sports as 'elitist,'" cautions Hogshead-Makar, a professor of law at Florida Coastal School of Law in Jacksonville. "Sport is an educational experience. It's where boys and girls learn how to win and lose, postpone short-term gratification, and be part of a team. All that happens much better on a playing field or in a swimming pool than it does in a classroom."

Often, Hogshead-Makar says, the person in charge of an athletic department comes from a football or men's basketball background and may not see the value of women's sports. "They sort of 'get it' for boys and think that's what the entire game is about," she says.

Without the law, any athletic director or school principal could simply cut the women's program for any reason like the school's decision to focus only on men's sports.

"Whoever is the decision-maker is often hostile to Title IX or the full implementation of women in sport," Hogshead-Makar says. "We need the law to be sure someone's individual bias cannot affect women's opportunities."

Title IX has helped narrow the gap between the number of girls and boys playing sports. A generation ago, only one in 27 young women participated in sports. Today, the figure is nearly one in two.

But, in reality, this equal-access theory has not always manifested itself in practice.

Data from the Women's Sports Foundation (WSF) indicate that 80 percent or more of all colleges and universities are not in compliance with the Title IX requirements. (Schools come into compliance with Title IX by meeting the three previously mentioned requirements.) While women comprise 50 percent of the general student population in most colleges, they receive only 40 percent of athletic program opportunities.

Opponents argue that the standard is too strict, calling it a "quota system." In fact, the College Football Association, the American Football Coaches Association, and the National Wrestling Coaches Association all have lobbied Congress to change the law and make it easier for schools to show they are in compliance.

Failure to comply could cost a college federal dollars.

"Title IX is not an unusual law with regard to this penalty," WSF Executive Director Donna Lopiano, PhD, says, explaining that the government normally gives funds to schools on the condition that they comply with federal laws. "To suggest that athletics should be an exception from the norm is carrying the excesses in American sport to ludicrous extremes."

Laying the Groundwork for the Future
There is good reason to remain vigilant about the enforcement of Title IX.

Sports is the 13th largest industry in the country and includes everything from licensing to elementary school sports camps. Many young women get involved by having had a sports experience in high school or college.

"Who you know is important, possibly more so than in other fields," Hogshead-Makar says. "Being able to make those connections happens through sports. Title IX is part of how the next generation of athletes will be raised even higher."

ROSEMARY ROOD-TUTT is the owner of Rosemary Rood & Associates, a full-service advertising and public relations services firm in Cleveland, OH.