"Training Rules" Response

I just watched the documentary "Training Rules" about Penn State's women's basketball team and their coach Rene Portland. I was so shocked by this documentary because I had never heard of these happenings before. For the coach to have such outward hatred toward lesbians is such a shame, and it's a shame that it was allowed to last for so long. Throughout the documentary they followed several basketball stars on the PSU team during Portland's coaching years. The Gulas twins were captured on film and discussed their stories. I found it so inspirational that at the age of 19 when they were told to either life a secret life in the closet and play basketball, or quit the team, they chose to quit the team. They didn't want to live a different life- they were happy with who they are.

I don't know how this woman could have ever thought she was doing a good thing. She was sexist and created fear in these women who were gay.

An interesting part of the documentary occurred when they began to discuss money. Money seems to be a common evil in sporting debates. The PSU alumni have such love for their alma mater and at one point began supporting the women's basketball team through generous donations. Once this happened, PSU lost some of their ability to rule over the coaches because the school no longer had the power (aka the money in this case).

I was pleased when the documentary said that PSU added sexual orientation to their anti-discriminatory laws in 1992. However, the implementation of these new rules proved to be quite the challenge. Even after all of these accusations from former players and other PSU coaches, I was so alarmed that Portland was still winning awards for coach of the year. And the fact that she still had a job! PSU only fined her 10,000 dollars, which like one woman said was a slap on the wrist to Portland.

At the end of the documentary there did seem to be hope. The WBCA created their code of ethics which mandated training for coaches. Also, the NCAA hosted a "Think Tank" in 2006 to help generate ideas toward eliminating negative recruitment in college athletics.

-Katherine Henry