Assignment 2.1 Formal Report Proposal

To: Dr. Erika Paterson

From: Claire Eccles

Date: October 15, 2020

Subject: Proposal for Implementing Female Baseball Varsity Programs in Post-Secondary Athletics

 

Introduction

While there is an abundance of NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) and NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletes) schools with baseball programs across Canada and the USA, it is principally exclusive to men. In recent years, female sport has been gaining increased popularity which has narrowed the gaps in various dimensions of sport such as pay, airtime and competition opportunity. While the world has experienced a significant shift in gender equality within sport, female baseball has remained largely missed. In fact, almost all women who participate in baseball eventually transition into playing softball at the collegiate level or are pushed toward early retirement due to a lack of development opportunities. While the trend of transitioning from baseball to softball represents an important opportunity for females to stay involved in elite sport, the absence of baseball at the collegiate level highlights a compelling need to provide varsity programs for female baseball.

 

Statement of Problem

For most females in baseball, playing opportunities are scarce to none after highschool. Without college playing opportunities, these athletes miss out on a pivotal period of their playing careers which has vast implications for the individual athlete, as well as the sport at large. The popularity of the sport has slowly been increasing for women, but the lack of play occurring at the collegiate level dismantles the possibility for growth.

 

Proposed Solution

Ultimately, it is imperative to fill the gap within the developmental pathway for female baseball athletes by implementing a female baseball varsity program at the collegiate level. Doing so will bolster women’s baseball at whole, from the grassroots to the international level. If girls are aware of possible playing opportunities post-secondary, retaining athletes would become steadier.

 

Intended Audience

Head of Athletics at universities and colleges would be approached to discuss the logistics and importance of implicating a female baseball program at schools.

 

Scope

To assess the feasibility of creating a female baseball program in post-secondary schools, I will dive into these areas of inquiry: 

1. At what age do the majority of girls drop out of baseball? Why?
2. What motivation could be created knowing a female baseball program at the collegiate level could exist?
3. What is the importance of having a female role model in baseball to feel motivated to continue the sport? Who are the possible role models?
4. What are the financial logistics of implementing another sport program at school? How would funding be provided?
5. What numbers are needed to garner interest in establishing a varsity program?
6. How do opinions of female’s playing baseball impact the interest in continuing in the sport?
7. What are the opinions of baseball coaches coaching a male team in accordance to women and their lack of opportunity to play in post-secondary?

 

Methods

My primary sources of data will come from past and current female national team baseball players playing for Canada and the United States, as well as the girls in their developmental pool. The data will be obtained through interview questions and an online survey. My connection with the UBC Athletic department will allow me to interview and gain an understanding of what it may take for a female varsity baseball program to be considered. Additionally, I will reach out to collegiate baseball coaches to gain an understanding of their viewpoint on female baseball and their opinions on it’s possible opportunities.

 

Secondary sources to do with female baseball and where it currently stands will be obtained from researching literature. Finding statistics will provide a solid foundation of understanding of where we are at and where we would like to get to. 

 

My Qualifications

As a current member of the women’s national baseball team and former member of UBC’s softball team, these questions have crossed my mind for countless numbers of years. I experienced an amazing opportunity in 2017 to play baseball on a men’s collegiate summer team and was one of the first females to break the barrier of a female playing baseball. I know the impact it had on youth female baseball players and the hope it has provided for future opportunities to play. My teammates and I fight to garner attention for the sport when we attend World Cups and Pan Am Games. In recent years, Baseball Canada has provided the women’s national program with more funding and more attention which has provided me hope that there are other ways to increase womens baseball’s popularity. My connections in the baseball and softball world will allow me to speak in depth with females who are experiencing the issues at hand and could provide answers to the next step to including female baseball as a post-secondary athletic program.

 

Conclusion

While there have been opportunities for a woman to play in certain conditions in recent years, the hope is for women’s baseball to occur at the post-secondary level. Doing so would gain a solid foundation of support and respect in order to grow the game. The gap in resources and opportunities at the collegiate level is a massive setback in terms of overall interest for females wanting to continue playing after high school graduation. The final step is not achieving a chance to play among the men, but to create our own league and program where we can compete against the same gender.