Windfall for Harvard-Westlake Girls’ Sports

Harvard-Westlake High, one of the most prestigious academic schools in the region and a growing athletic power, has received a commitment of $400,000 over the next four years to promote girls’ sports at the Studio City campus.

The Wilbur May Foundation donated $100,000 to the school last summer and has promised an identical donation each year through 2000 for girls’ athletics.

“Then we’ll look at it and see if it’s going well,” said Anita May Rosenstein, president of the foundation.

The money is being used to buy equipment, improve facilities, help pay for girl athletes to attend summer camps and educate coaches, according to school headmaster Thomas Hudnut.

The May Foundation has ties to the former Westlake School for girls, which merged with Harvard in 1989. Rosenstein and her four sisters attended Westlake, and her son, Brian, a golfer, graduated last year from Harvard-Westlake.

The foundation awards $2 million in grants each year focusing on children and education, according to Rosenstein.

“‘My feeling was if they started with [training] girls at an early age like their freshman year, they can continue [with sports],” Rosenstein said.

“We’ve given them quite a broad spectrum [how to use the money]. We’d like [the donation] to benefit girls sports. Even with Title IX, it doesn’t even out.”

More than $6,000 is being spent for lights at the school pool to enable the girls’ water polo team to practice after dark.

Two pitching machines were purchased for the softball team at Harvard-Westlake’s middle school campus in Holmby Hills.

Funds helped pay for the girls’ basketball team to stay in Santa Barbara for a recent tournament.

The school is using funds to bring in a speaker from the University of Kentucky to hold a symposium for coaches on working with girl athletes. Other coaches from the Mission League have been invited to attend the function in April.

“For so long, there weren’t opportunities for girls to compete at the highest level and compete for college scholarships,” Hudnut said. “I think they’re [the Wilbur May Foundation] trying to address that.”

Hudnut said 15% of Harvard-Westlake students receive financial aid. The tuition is $12,800 per year.

Girls who can’t afford to pay for camps will be able to seek funds under the grant, Hudnut said.