Since arriving back on the scene as a starting pitcher for Allan Hancock College’s softball team, sophomore Patti Womack has become adept at keeping all her balls in the air.
The 29-year-old is in her second go-round with the Lady Bulldogs. A full-time student with a job and single mom of a 4-year-old daughter, Womack recently returned to school to continue her education and was approached to join the team this season, though she hadn’t pitched in almost 10 years.
“I never thought I’d play softball at a high level like this again. It’s a total honor for me to be playing,” Womack said. “I don’t know how I do it. I just take it one day at a time. I know it’s my passion, so I just get it done.”
Hancock originally recruited Womack from Righetti High School, where she starred four years as a pitcher and first baseman. She played for the Bulldogs in 2000 before she got a job at a preschool and was forced to quit the sport.
“I was still going to school, but I couldn’t juggle softball and working,” she said. “It was terrible. I thought about it all the time and wished that I hadn’t had to quit or that I’d went further with it. So for me, playing now is like a second chance. That’s why I feel so blessed.”
In Womack’s first year, her coach, Scia Maumausolo, has seen first hand the unique challenges women face in wanting to continue their athletic pursuits beyond high school, from the pressures of raising children to starting along on a career path.
“In these economic times, a lot of the female athletes coming out of high school are feeling obligated to get a job and go to school, so they’re finding it hard to do any other activities, like athletics,” Maumausolo said.
According to Maumausolo, the lack of exposure for professional women’s sports may be causing women to put less emphasis on playing sports once in college.
“Females spend time with their friends, they have academics, they have a balance there,” she said. “Historically for men, if they’re in a sport, then that’s their goal. If you play football, you watch it almost every day. The top softball players probably aren’t doing that.
“It’s a different story for women,” she added. “I don’t know that it always will be. I can always hope that it will change, but that’s the way it has been.”
Hancock’s softball team has struggled with participation for years, and recently the school put the women’s soccer program on hiatus due to a lack of interest, according to Hancock College Athletic Director Kim Ensing. A former student-athlete herself, Ensing knows all too well the uphill battle females face in reaching the heights of higher-level athletics.
“There’s still sometimes a stigma that it’s a man’s world,” she said. “On the other side of that coin, most male athletes have been brought up where it’s acceptable to be competitive.
“The opportunity to play professional sports, even if it’s a pipe dream for young men, it’s still a feasible dream because it exists,” Ensing explained. “You don’t hear about professional anything for women except the WNBA. You don’t dream it because it’s just not there.”
Subject to Title IX legislation, Hancock offers an equal number of men’s and women’s sports—seven apiece. The law, enacted in 1972, was supposed to present a level playing field for athletes of both genders, but not everybody took it seriously, Ensing said.
“The opportunities for women have always been a challenge. It depends on who’s paying attention and who’s following protocol regarding the federal law,” she said. “It’s sad. There wasn’t a federal law that was put on the books for males to have an opportunity. Women had to have one.”
While Ensing said in this day and age opportunities between the genders are more equitable than they used to be, there’s still a long way to go toward solving the societal issues surrounding women and sport.
“As we go through the ’80s, ’90s, and now into 2010, there are more female role models,” she said. “There’s more coverage in the media showing women in sports, and it being OK, that the challenges become fewer. I think though that by their very nature, a woman may have a multitude of interests.”
Hancock’s women’s volleyball coach Julio Molina said though females may have a myriad goals outside of sports, it doesn’t necessarily mean they quit playing altogether.
“When you think of a female athlete in high school who’s doing sports, they’re probably not just doing the one sport, they’re probably doing something else,” Molina said. “In my experience, most of them do very well in getting into four-year universities, so sports might not be their number one priority, but getting into school is.”
Molina has high academic standards for the dozen or so girls on his roster, evident in his team’s collective 3.06 GPA. While most of his players have transferred or pursued something else after community college, in his third year as head coach, Molina has yet to send a player to a university on a volleyball scholarship.
“As a teacher to these young women, I don’t care how they move on,” Molina said. “I would love for them to continue playing somewhere, whether it be on a scholarship or in a walk-on role.”
When he’s recruiting, Molina makes his presence known to players at local high schools and club teams. He introduces himself and makes players aware of the possibility of playing at the community college level. Molina said he hopes to instill Hancock as a primary option for graduating seniors, promoting it as a stepping stone to a four-year college and a way to further their future in sports.
“It seems to me that there are female athletes that would love to continue their athletic careers beyond high school,” Molina said. “I think the opportunities are out there, it’s just that they don’t know about them or perhaps the area doesn’t do a good job in promoting or exposing the kids to those options.”
Womack, who never expected to be back in uniform for the Bulldogs, considers herself fortunate to be essentially recruited twice to play college softball. With the support of her friends and family, she said she’s not about to let the experience go to waste.
“I just want to finish out the season with wins and just enjoy each day I have with my teammates,” she said. “This is going to be the last time I get to play fast pitch. This is all I have left.
“Any athlete dreams of going on and playing forever,” she added. “It’s all about determination.”
Staff Writer Jeremy Thomas is determined. Contact him at jthomas@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Apr 15-22, 2010.
