Enterprise article

Possible university funding for the men’s volleyball program will be put on hold until more female athletes represent UW-Oshkosh athletics.

According to a Federal law introduced in the mid 1970’s called title IX, the men’s volleyball program at Oshkosh will have to wait until the more of the women athletes represent the campus’ athletics.

Title IX describes how the discrimination of genders should be prohibited: No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.

“In general, title IX was a law that I felt was good and bad,” said head coach Brian Schaefer. “Being a head coach of a college level women’s volleyball team has shown me how far women’s sports have come from past years and given them more opportunities to feel equal to men’s athletics. On the reverse side, it has taken away from great men’s athletic programs that deserve recognition.”

The UW-Oshkosh men’s volleyball program competes in tournaments all over the Midwest and most recently, in Las Vegas, NV. The funding for all of these trips comes from hard work and dedication from each individual athlete who serves on average, 10-15 hours a week fundraising.

Certain fundraising that the Titans have done include officiating Junior Olympic volleyball tournaments as well as concessions and apparel sales, parking cars for the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletics Association basketball tournaments, magazine subscriptions, finding area sponsorships and more.

“Some of the things that we do to raise money for the team takes a lot of time and an extremely high level of dedication,” said senior outside hitter Tim Weis. “It’s really hard to always have to give up every single weekend you have for four months just to raise money.”

All of the funds raised by the team pays for tournament entry fees which can range anywhere from $500-$1200, rentals of university vehicles for travel, new equipment and uniforms, food for the concession sales and hotel rooms for weekend tournaments.

“A lot of the things that we do go unnoticed,” said senior setter Andrew Sederberg. “The women’s team gets everything they need for free, coach bus rides, free uniforms and shoes and even spending money for weekend tournaments. We just work that much harder to be able to get the things that we want.”

According to Director of Athletics Allen Ackerman, title IX has given the women’s team at Oshkosh an even shot at all aspects of athletics. Ackerman believes that title IX plays a huge role as to why the men’s volleyball program will not advance to the NCAA level of competition.

“The proportion of women athletes here isn’t where it needs to be in order for the program to get to the next level,” said Ackerman. “It needs a 60 to 40 percent ratio of women athlete to men athlete representation before we could add any men’s club sport to the budget.”

The current percentage of women athletes at Oshkosh is 43 percent. Schaefer states that it would take a lot longer than necessary for it to change in his favor.

“I think that title IX has enabled me and my sister to play sports that we loved playing while we were little in high school,” said junior setter Amanda Chart. “While it has helped a lot of girl’s sports, I feel bad for the men’s team because they have the potential to be great and play at a higher level.”