Leveling the Field

Less than a year out of college and half a continent away from her Midwestern roots, Barbara Fiege showed up for her first teaching job 28 years ago at Los Angeles Dorsey High and was shocked to discover that she wasn’t just a softball coach, she was the only coach for the varsity and junior varsity teams.

In one of the first tests of Title IX, at the time a new and little known piece of federal legislation that guarantees an equal playing field for girls and women, Fiege and 21 other coaches in the Los Angeles Unified School District filed a complaint with the government, pointing out that boys’ coaches were provided paid assistants.

From that bold beginning, Fiege, now 50, has become one of the state’s most influential women in athletics, pushing and prodding for integrity, equality and sportsmanship as she oversees 61 boys’ and girls’ athletic programs as commissioner of the California Interscholastic Federation’s L.A. City Section.

Fiege is one of four pioneering women who were honored Thursday by the Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles as part of National Girls and Women in Sports Day. Supporters say the recognition is long overdue.

“She is well respected by her peers,” state CIF Executive Director Marie M. Ishida said. “And she is willing to take a stand.”

Although her next big test could be looming budget cuts as a result of the state’s massive fiscal crisis, Fiege recalls that spring in 1975 at Dorsey and wonders how she got through it. A softball and volleyball player from Northern Illinois University, she headed West shortly after graduation and, as the Chicago native puts it, lucked into a teaching position when Dorsey’s softball coach quit in the middle of the year.

“I’d start the varsity game,” she said. “About the fourth inning I’d grab my captain, tell her what I wanted the team to do, then I would literally run across the park to the junior varsity game, leaving the varsity to finish without me.”

Described by supporters as soft-spoken and methodical, sometimes to a fault, Fiege worked her way up the ranks, leaving Dorsey in 1981 for L.A. Belmont, where she eventually headed the athletic and physical education departments. She rose to prominence working on several committees, most notably as chairwoman of the school district’s gender equity commission from 1988 to ’93.

When Fiege became section commissioner in 1993, the City Section, one of 10 geographic regions governing athletics in California, had long been an understaffed, one-person show dwarfed in importance and influence by the neighboring Southern Section, with its 525 public and private high schools, a staff of 15 and its own headquarters.

In stark contrast, City teams function as part of a huge administrative quagmire in the nation’s second-largest school district. High school sports in the City Section have lagged behind other state sections in areas such as the number of lower-level teams and the amount of stipends available to coaches.

When Fiege stepped in, there also was growing sentiment that the section, which stretches from San Pedro through the San Fernando Valley, was a place where rules were easily manipulated. In some high-profile cases, members of club all-star basketball teams wound up playing together at the same school.

Critics say that Fiege took too long to act on the latter, but she finally responded in spring 1999 with what many consider a watershed decision for her administration. Among other penalties, she ordered Harbor City Narbonne to vacate section and state titles in girls’ basketball for using players who lived outside attendance boundaries.

Former Southern Section commissioner Dean Crowley said the Narbonne ruling sent a message throughout the state that Fiege was a thorough-minded person of integrity who sooner or later would bring the City Section into line.

“She stands up for what she believes is right,” Crowley said. “You violate the rules and you pay the price. She is a good, level-headed administrator that gets the job done, even if she has to take an unpopular position.”

The fallout was tough. Fiege received threats and was targeted by a bias lawsuit.

“I learned very quickly that, in this job, you have to have tough skin,” she said.

Fiege not only weathered the storm, she was able to consolidate power and push ahead with much-needed reforms.

Oversight committees were established to help in decision-making and a coaches association for women was formed. The commissioner’s office added an assistant and more secretarial help. Three years ago the school board funded junior varsity teams in all girls’ sports.

Next month the City Section is expected to decide if it wants to follow the Southern Section and ban transfers between schools for athletic purposes. Fiege, whose sportsmanship campaign is well-known, says that approval will rebuild honor and loyalty at home schools. But critics say such action restricts freedom of choice.

It’s too early to tell how pending budget cuts might affect the section, Fiege said, but “it would be very difficult to lose any of these gains that we strove so hard to get at that time.”

She hopes to increase girls’ playing facilities and encourage more women to become coaches and referees. Fiege said she remains a firm believer in Title IX. Yet, Ishida said that Fiege has been equally supportive of statewide legislation affecting boys’ sports.

Most recently, the section joined with L.A. Parks and Recreation Department centers to teach fair play. Positive actions need to be instilled in children long before they get to high school, Fiege insists.

“This is a passion for me,” she said. “When I played we didn’t talk back to officials or coaches. We were happy to play. We all tried to win, but we would not do some of the [unsportsmanlike] things going on today.”

Sometimes Fiege agrees with critics who say that the section has undergone too much change in a short period of time.

“If I could change anything, it would be to stop making so many changes,” she said. “But people look at this office as a governing board to uphold the rules, to do the right thing and to penalize violators.”

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Noteworthy Women

As part of National Girls and Women in Sports Day, the Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles honored four females as “women who inspire us” at a luncheon Thursday. Here’s a look at each honoree:

Barbara Fiege: Commissioner of athletics for the Los Angeles City Section of the California Interscholastic Federation.

Tiffany Knapper: A 14-year-old triple amputee who is an equestrienne with the Blue Mountain Drill team and a competitive swimmer.

Angela Madsen: Silver medalist in adaptive rowing world championships. Also competes in other sports, including wheelchair basketball, surfing, hockey and tennis. Co-founder of California Adaptive Rowing.

Bettie Williams: A 25-year volunteer for Southern California Swimming.