As a child growing up in the `40s, Sally Berger preferred baseball to dolls, running bases to playing hopscotch.
”All the mothers in the park used to wonder whatever would become of me,” recalls Berger, now a health care consultant and partner at Ernst & Young, a consulting and accounting firm.
Berger says playing with the neighborhood boys prepared her for handling the old boy`s network of the business world.
”I absolutely believe that being involved in team sports has influenced my career,” says Berger, an avid golfer who once caddied for her father. ”I learned early on that sports as networking is a way of life for men.”
Like Berger, many women are learning that job success demands far more than skills and hard work. Plotting a career involves strategy, training, physical energy, mental preparation and exemplary performance under pressure- situations simulated by and learned through team sports.
More and more women who want to be heavy hitters in the business world are honing a repertoire of sports skills, from golf and tennis to basketball, volleyball and softball. Even former benchwarmers who were always the last to be picked for grade school teams are seeking entree into the arena of sports networking.
Females represent a weightier proportion of newcomers to traditional men`s sports. According to the National Golf Foundation, women account for 40 percent of the nation`s 2.5 million new players, 120,000 more than in 1983. The Women`s Sports Foundation reports the top five sports for high school girls are basketball, track and field, volleyball, softball and tennis.
The rise in girls` sports participation is largely attributed to federal regulations that require equitable fitness programs, says Deborah Anderson, executive director of the non-profit, New York-based foundation. In 1972, only 300,000 high school girls participated in sports, compared with 1.8 million today.
”Title IX (anti-discrimination federal law) opened up more sports scholarships for women,” says Anderson. ”Now women are coming out of college with varsity experience and they don`t want to stop playing.”
Sweat equity
The link between sports and networking long has been forged and strengthened by male executives. Camaraderies built during after-hours racquetball or weekend golf rounds are a time-honored staple of corporate life.
Golf reigns as one of the oldest and most conservative networking sports. Not surprisingly, women golfers have encountered some resistance from private clubs. Many have unwavering ”men`s only” policies that restrict women`s tee times and bar single women from joining.
Despite the barriers, more and more women golfers have forged ahead to become proficient enough to play on a par with powerful clients and coworkers. At the beginning of her career in 1972, Dorothy ”Dee” DeCarlo decided to take golf lessons so she could attend outings with fellow media sales executives and clients.
”I found out that it`s probably not the golf course where the actual deals are made,” says DeCarlo, now a restaurant consultant and chairwoman of the Illinois Restaurant Association. ”It`s that you feel more comfortable talking business with the person after you`ve played 18 holes together.”
”People do business with people they know,” agrees Berger, national director of health care practice development for Ernst & Young. ”If you spend a day on the golf course together you have shared a difficult and sometimes humbling experience.”
Lisa Howard, an award-winning golfer who played varsity at the University of Kansas, says her skill has drawn a fair amount of attention and admiration from male co-workers.
”On Monday mornings, all the weekend golfers will come into my office and recount their rounds to me,” says Howard, 30, public relations director for the Chicago Department of Aviation. ”Even for people I just meet, golf is a common-ground subject, an ice-breaker.”
Howard says her passion for golf has opened career doors. ”If you have a reputation for being a good golfer, you`re more likely to get invited out (by men golfers),” she says.
Whether it`s golf or table tennis, participating in some kind of sporting activity brings disparate people together in a unified effort, says Dorene Marcus, a family law attorney and founding partner of Grund, Marcus, McNish, Knabe & Nadier.
”I don`t have a lot in common with some of my partners, primarily because I`m single and they have families,” says Marcus. ”But when we run together it makes me feel closer to being `one of the boys.` ”
Becoming MVPs
Some companies have formalized the sports-networking connection by organizing inter-office sporting events. At Baxter Healthcare Corp. in Deerfield, nearly 300 employees participate in intramural volleyball and softball. Half the players are women.
Corporate attorney Vicki Casmere decided to join two teams shortly after being hired two years ago. ”I was apprehensive about my skill level,” says Casmere, 32. ”But after the first few games, you realize you`re no worse than anyone else.”
The business relationships she has developed on the court have been invaluable, she says. ”Women who participate are seen as part of the team,” she says. ”You get a reputation of being a reliable, tougher person.”
Even during her recent maternity leave, Casmere kept in touch with coworkers by coming in to watch the twice-weekly games. Although she`d had her baby just weeks before, she was drafted to play when her team was short one woman player.
”I just basically stood there and everyone played around me, but we won two games that we would have forfeited otherwise,” she says.
The games bring out different facets of coworkers` personalities, she says. ”If someone says they are going to show up for a game and they don`t, maybe I can`t depend on them (on the job),” she explains.
Baxter intramurals provide Jill Kordell, 23, a chance to be more visible within a 9,000-member corporation.
”When I first started playing (volleyball) I was teasing a guy about his game and he turned out to be one of the corporate vice presidents,” says Kordell, marketing manager for the credit union. ”We still joke about it to this day.”
Changing the rules
Some women say playing power games with men requires more diplomacy than skill.
”Sometimes a man will play tennis with me and want to beat me because I`m a woman,” says the Women`s Sports Foundation`s Anderson, a former state champion in tennis. ”In those cases it`s up to me to help him understand that the game is supposed to be fun, not a contest.”
Anderson usually suggests playing a few sets without keeping score. In extreme cases, she ends the game or recommends an alternate sport.
Women who worry about outshining a boss or client on the playing field should resist the urge to let them win, says Anderson.
”You don`t want to humiliate the other person, but you should always go for the best performance you can,” she advises.
Lisa Howard handles competition on the golf course by concentrating on her own game. ”I play the same no matter who I`m with; I don`t let up at all,” she says. ”It doesn`t put anybody off. Often, I`m asked to give (golf course companions) some tips on their own game.”
Health clubs are one way to bring men and women together in a sports atmosphere without the obvious segregation of winners and losers. At the East Bank Club, members mix business with aerobics, racquetball, basketball-even running.
Public relations executive Marilyn Liss frequently meets clients at the crack of dawn for a five-mile run on the indoor track.
”We run a few miles, walk a little, then pick up the pace again while we talk,” says Liss, a partner of Rosner & Liss Public Relations, which handles such clients as the Chicago Board of Education, Group W Cable and the Museum of Contemporary Art.
”Being away from the office seems to make people more relaxed and receptive, which is important in our business, because we`re constantly trying to suggest new ideas.”
Chicago television producer Donna LaPietra prefers to exercise alone first, then meet with clients or staff in one of the club`s restaurants.
”Besides the convenience of meeting at the club, I feel sharper after a good workout,” says LaPietra, an exercise devotee for 10 years. ”There`s no haggling over who`s going to pick up the bill because I sign for everything.” Future draft picks
Women who have pursued sports since childhood believe it should be a cornerstone of every girl`s education.
”Sports teaches you to know who you are: your weak points and your strong points,” says Willye White, a five-time Olympic contender and two-time silver medalist in track and field. ”Your skills are continually being tested in a structured arena.”
At the age of 16, White brought home the first of her two silver medals in 1956, when she won for long jump. She was honored again for the medley relay in 1964.
Now interim director of health education for the City of Chicago, White says 27 years of sports training has spurred her on to achieve despite temporary setbacks.
”In athletics, when you lose, it doesn`t mean you`re a failure,” says White, who also is a trustee of the Women`s Sports Foundation. ”You assess yourself against the competitor who beat you. Could you have trained harder?
How can you be better?”
White, who regularly coaches girls` basketball teams, is particularly excited about soccer`s growing popularity in the U.S. She explains that unlike football or baseball, all players are rotated onto the field, thus giving more girls a chance to try out fledgling athletic skills.
Slowly, even some all-boy teams are welcoming girl players. Lindsey Pierce, 11, is one of the few girls to ever play for Glenview Youth Baseball and is believed to be the first to play in an All-Star Game. Pierce credits her coaches for encouraging her four-year sports career, which began with T-ball when she was 6.
”I`ve really worked to improve myself,” says Pierce, who plays either catcher or first base on her team.
”I learned that a mistake or two is nothing compared to how I do in the overall game,” Pierce says, recalling a game in which she struck out twice in a row, but then rallied defensively in another inning.
”I came back and threw two guys out in one inning,” she says. ”I couldn`t have done that if I`d gotten all down about myself.”
Although her stellar performance on the field has earned her the respect and admiration of her teammates, the 6th-grader suffers occasional taunts at school.
”Sometimes, (classmates) will call me a tomboy,” says Pierce, who also plays softball and soccer. ”They just want to seem neat, but what they say doesn`t matter to me because I`m doing what I want.”
Pierce says she probably will stop playing baseball in a few years because ”all the boys are going to be bigger than I am.” Currently, few other girls share her interest in forming a separate team.
However, Pierce-who for now plans on becoming an orthodontist-sports will be a permanent part of her future. ”I really like it when I`m competing,”
she says. ”It`s fun and you have to try really hard and when you win it feels even better.”
Such young success stories are encouraging.
”We`re finally moving toward a time,” White says, ”when all little girls will learn that competition means more than trying to look prettier than their friends.”
