A stampede of support for
Women Athletes
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By KILEY MALLARD
N 2021, THE USF WOMEN’S soccer team completed its first unbeaten regular season since 1998, making it to the second round of the NCAA championship and finishing in the top 25 nationally. The softball team played in its seventh NCAA tournament in the last 10 seasons, reaching the regional finals for the first time since 2014. Women’s basketball won their first regular-season conference championship and first conference tournament championship, finishing the season ranked No. 12 nationally — an all-time high. And those are just a few of the accomplishments of USF’s women athletes in the 2020-2021 season. A new initiative at USF hopes to push these outstanding women student-athletes to even greater heights. The idea for Stampede for Women started germinating in the fall of 2019, and the initiative officially launched in February 2021. The goal of Stampede for Women is to raise awareness and empower female student-athletes to overcome challenges through gathering community support of USF women’s athletics programs. Gifts support USF’s 10 women’s sports programs and more than 200 student-athletes and fund scholarships, career development opportunities and capital projects. In turn, donors have inside access to teams, providing opportunities for student-athletes to build relationships with members of the community. Helping to launch the effort is Michael Kelly, vice president for USF Athletics. “I’m so excited about Stampede for Women, because it’s high time we find ways to find more community support for our women student-athletes,” he says. “Not only in terms of developing resources to continue our great tradition and success with women’s sports and propel that even further, but also to build support in terms of attendance at our games, mentoring opportunities and other ways for women in the community to build relationships with the strong women we have here at USF.” Denise Schilte-Brown, who has served as women’s soccer coach at USF since 2006, is a vocal advocate for pay equality in soccer. She became involved with Stampede for
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UNIVERSITY of SOUTH FLORIDA
Women to raise awareness of the issue and support women athletes at USF. “I think the important thing to understand is men’s athletics have generations on women. They’ve had the support of the media,” Schilte-Brown says. “The more we can get the word out that women’s sports need support, then we can catch up to where the men are.” Schilte-Brown says donors to Stampede for Women help the women athletes feel valued. “These are tremendous women. They are killing it in the classroom. They are getting their volunteer hours in. These are doctors and engineers. They’re doing a great job of winning and creating national exposure for USF,” Schilte-Brown says. Helping to get Stampede for Women off the ground is a group of four donors, including Sally Dee ’94 and MBA ’11, Life Member; Betty Castor, Life Member; Joanne Nelson; and Cindy Kane ’76, Life Member. Once a student-athlete herself, playing on USF’s women’s golf team from 1989 to 1993 and then on the LPGA tour from 1998 to 2002, Dee says the experience changed her whole life and ultimately gave her the confidence to start her own public relations firm, Playbook Public Relations. “Women’s athletics provides the foundation for great leadership, because as a student-athlete you learn things like time management, self-discipline, self-motivation and teamwork,” Dee says. Dee would like to see USF become a model for what can be in women’s athletics. She also looks forward to seeing USF’s women athletes thrive. “I am part of the Stampede for Women, because I want to make a difference,” Dee says. Dee pointed to Title IX as providing opportunities for women who are now dominating on the world stage at the Olympics. “Title IX was passed to ensure women had equal opportunities in college admissions. The positive unintended consequence was the meteoric rise of female athletes on a world stage,” she says. “When, as a society, we create more equitable opportunities for women, greatness will follow.”
