Michigan still in search of women's title

This season's cover story in Sports Illustrated for Women presents a list of the 20 best colleges in the country for female athletes. The article is peppered with the expected names - UCLA, Wisconsin, Penn State, Notre Dame - but has one glaring absence. Michigan appears nowhere in the top 20, and the only blurb about the Wolverines is buried deep within the story.

According to the magazine, schools were judged according to "varsity, club, and intramural opportunities; graduation rates; financial aid; fan support ... and facilities, sports-related curricula, traditions and attitude." The Wolverines pride themselves on being among the nation's leaders in each of these categories - so what accounts for the Michigan Athletic Department's exclusion from the list? What do the women's teams at Harvard, Princeton and Nebraska have that their counterparts at Michigan do not?

A national championship.

In the more than 25 years that women's sports at Michigan have enjoyed varsity status, no team has returned to Ann Arbor with a national championship. These same teams have won dozens of Big Ten titles, sent athletes to Olympic games, and made it to the championship round of national tournaments on an annual basis. But still, no Michigan team has ever been able to take that all-important final step to end its season as "the leaders and best."

Many Michigan teams in recent years have come close. The women's gymnastics team finished second in the NCAA championships in 1995 and 1999, cross country and swimming and diving were both runners-up in 1994-95, and the softball team made four straight Women's College World Series appearances from 1995-1998.

This weekend, the Michigan field hockey team was the latest participant in this quest for a championship. After a remarkable run through the postseason tournament, the Wolverines fell just short of history, losing to Maryland in the finals, 2-1. Their amazing accomplishments and sudden rise to prominence brought the issue of a national title for Michigan women to the forefront once again and made athletes, coaches, and administrators alike excited by the prospect of a women's national championship in the near future.

Winning a championship "would be wonderful," said Peg Bradley-Doppes, the Athletic Director at North Carolina-Wilmington and formerly one of Michigan's Senior Associate Athletic Directors. "It would mean increased national visibility and would validate all the strides that have been made in the athletic program. Not having a national championship has been hanging over our heads.

"It would be great for the whole athletic department for a women's team to come out and win a national championship," Michigan women's gymnastics coach Bev Plocki agreed. "We've been trying and have come close, so I think it would be great to see Michigan women's athletics come out and take this final step."

Duke women's golf coach Dan Brooks knows the significance of a school's first women's national championship. When his 1999 squad won the NCAA golf championship, its championship was the first in Duke women's athletics history.

"We're pretty proud of our women's programs down here, and I didn't feel like there was a dearth of attention before we won," said Brooks, whose school appeared on Sports Illustrated for Women's top 20 list. "But I thought our reception was really nice; we didn't expect the high fanfare. It was a pretty neat thing to win and we were recognized well."

Brooks also acknowledged that owning the title of national champion adds credibility to his team.

"I think winning helped recruiting," Brooks said. "There isn't any top prospect interested in a top program that doesn't know that we won. We recruited well and brought in two top players this year, and I think winning the championship had to be part of that success."

This is not to say that winning a national title is the only way to have a strong athletic program. Michigan ranks among the most successful women's programs in collegiate sports, with or without a championship to its name . Reaching the pinnacle is an undeniable goal for every team, and places a stamp of credibility on the entire program.

"Michigan has a first-class women's athletic program," Bradley-Doppes said. "Winning a title is just a byproduct of great coaches, great kids, and a wonderful institution. Winning a national championship does not make one a better team, it is just the ultimate goal or challenge that any team could achieve. At Michigan, everyone wants to add to or enhance the tradition."

Michigan senior captain Ashley Reichenbach agreed that winning the championship is the ultimate goal for an already amazing program.

"It means a lot to get this far and be in the top four who are left competing for a national championship," Reichenbach said before leaving for the Final Four. "The women's athletic program at Michigan is awesome. This is just another stepping stone for women's athletics and I feel honored to be a part of a team that is getting close to reaching the pinnacle of all collegiate sports."

A championship for one team clearly would be a victory for the entire program. Women's teams at Michigan have a sense of community unmatched by almost any other school. Coaches, administrators, and athletes agree that if one team could win a championship, it would validate their prior successes and inspire their teams to succeed in the future.

"(Winning) gives a program a little higher focus," said former Michigan Women's Athletic Director Phyllis Ocker for whom Michigan's field is named. "I think that it inspires the whole program and says to other coaches and players, 'It's attainable. Let's get on with it.'"

"There's a strong sense of team throughout the athletic department, and that's critical," Bradley-Doppes said. "Coaches support other coaches, athletes go to the games of other athletes-there's a sense of family common to the entire program."

Michigan assistant hockey coach Tracey Fuchs, who won an NCAA championship while a student-athlete at Connecticut, agreed that in the Final Four, her team was playing on behalf of the entire Michigan women's athletic program.

"Just to be representing Michigan women in a Final Four is a great thing," Fuchs said. "We're great friends with softball, and other teams have been in there, so just to be here and see what we can do for Michigan athletics in general is awesome."

The lack of women's team championships at Michigan does not mean there has been a dearth of national champion female athletes. Several women have won individual national championships in the 1990s alone, most notably cross-country runner Katie McGregor in 1998 and gymnast Beth Wymer on the uneven bars in 1993, 1994, and 1995. Although such accomplishments are remarkable, they don't bring the prestige or recognition of a team victory.

"Team championships rightly or unrightly get more publicity," Ocker said. "The team effort - working together - seems to say more than an individual championship. Either way, there are good individuals involved. The idea of working together and not just going after one's own famous accomplishment says a lot for a group."

"We applaud the accomplishments of individuals," said Plocki, who guided Wymer in her championship years. "But it's really about the team and about Michigan. One individual does not make a team, and team accomplishments far exceed the accomplishments of individuals. If a team succeeds, individual accolades automatically come, and it takes all individuals performing at their optimum for a team to be successful."

For now, Michigan has to be content with individual national championships and a second-place team finish. The athletic department hopes that the Wolverines' time for victory is near, and is confident that soon a team will cross the final hurdle.

"To win a championship would be to get the monkey off our backs," Bradley-Doppes said. "Everyone wants to be the first."

11-22-99