For Jill Oakes and Nandi Pryce of the UCLA women’s soccer
team, it’s been quite a road from the youth club soccer
circuit to a hearing in front of members of the California
Legislature.
The road they took, along with the challenges they faced as
women athletes of color, were discussed Wednesday before the
Assembly Select Committee on Title IX in the James West Alumni
Center.
The hearing allowed the committee to examine opportunities for
women of color in sports and academics from multiple
perspectives.
Oakes, a freshman, began playing soccer at the age of 8 in her
hometown of West Hills. The financial transition from playing
recreational soccer to club soccer was difficult on her family.
Her talent eventually allowed her to train in the Olympic
Development Program (ODP), then on the Under-19 U.S. World Cup team
and the Under-21 U.S. team.
“And now I’m at UCLA on a full scholarship and
loving it,” she said.
Oakes was the consensus No. 1 ranked recruit in the country
coming out of high school. In light of this fact, her
recommendation to the committee to increase recruiting efforts by
Div. I schools was powerful.
“Unfortunately, in soccer you don’t really get
recruited out of high school. Fortunately, we do have a youth
development program, but it would be excellent for all sports to
have another outlet,” said Oakes.
Pryce’s experience was a little different. She grew up in
Casselberry, Fl., a “middle-upper class” town near
Orlando.
“I didn’t know until I came to college how much my
parents had sacrificed when I was younger,” Pryce said.
She also participated in the ODP and the U-18 and U-21 U.S.
National soccer teams. During her senior year of high school, Pryce
was selected for the Olympic Residency, which is where players live
and compete with the Olympic Team.
A particular topic of interest for the committee was role
models. Several of the assembly members on the panel offered their
personal testimony as female athletes growing up in the pre-Title
IX era; many cited the lack of role models as an impediment to
their progress.
For Pryce, whose brother Trevor is a defensive end for the
Denver Broncos, this wasn’t an issue.
“He was my mentor,” she said. “To see him, and
come to school (at UCLA), and after my freshman year have my jersey
retired by my school ““ the first woman athlete ““
that’s a pretty amazing thing.”
After the committee jotted down notes about Oakes and Pryce, a
panel that included UCLA associate athletic director Betsy
Stephenson presented an administrator’s perspective on Title
IX.
“Because of the media interest in college athletics, it is
the focal point of how Title IX is played out,” she said.
“It’s the stage.”
Two other athletes shared the podium with Price and Oakes
““ Nicky McCrimmon of the Los Angeles Sparks and Alisa Carillo
of Orange Coast College.
McCrimmon described the challenge of getting a college
scholarship out of high school in urban New York while Carillo was
invited for spearheading a movement to install women’s locker
rooms at Saddleback High School.