Kleinfelder Sees Successful Future for Women's Sports, Hopes to Expand, Improve Radcliffe's Athletic Program

One year ago, Carole Kleinfelder was a vital part of Brown's athletic staff, coaching the college's women's varsity basketball and softball teams and teaching physical education classes.

Today, Kleinfelder is at Harvard as head coach of Radcliffe basketball and assistant coach of Radcliffe field hockey and lacrosse. She made the move to Harvard, she said yesterday, because she believes Harvard is more committed to women's sports.

As evidence, Kleinfelder cites the allotment of practice time and equipment here, which she says is more equitable than it is at Brown. "At Brown, the women's basketball team was given the late-night practice time, 6-8 p.m.," she says. "Here, the men and women alternate practicing during the early (4-6 p.m.) and late slots."

Kleinfelder's coaching career here started with success: this year the Radcliffe field hockey team, for which she served as assistant coach, finished with an 11-1-2 record, its best ever.

Since then, Kleinfelder, with the help of Nikki Janus, assistant athletic director, has succeeded in bringing the Ivy League Women's Basketball Tournament to Harvard for the 1977-78 season. Her next goal, she says, is to play the tournament final in Boston Garden.

"Women play basketball more than any other sport," Kleinfelder says.

To demonstrate the surging popularity of women's basketball, Kleinfelder points to Sports Illustrated magazine's recent ranking of the "top ten" women's college basketball teams. This coverage is good, she says, because it indicates growing acceptance of women's basketball.

Delta's Sunset

Kleinfelder predicts that this growing popularity will force small colleges like Delta State and Immaculata, which now lead the rankings, out of these top slots, because they "won't be able to keep up with larger colleges in recruiting women players."

Eventually, she says the schools that now dominate men's college basketball will take over women's basketball.

Since the Ivy League "fortunately" does not get involved in "heavy recruiting", Kleinfelder says, she expects Harvard to be competitive only with other Ivy League schools. "Anything above that, like national ranking, would be great, but it's not an immediate goal."

No Success

The Radcliffe basketball team lost every game in the Ivy League Tournament in the last two years. "This year's team is committed to not having that happen again," Kleinfelder declares.

"There's a lot of talent in this year's freshman class," she says. "They look like they've had coaching." Kleinfelder says the players' improved skills are largely due to "the benefits they got from Title IX."

Title IX of the 1972 Education Amendments required equal opportunity for women in all school programs.

The law reads, "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any educational program or activity receiving federal financial assistance."

Kleinfelder's main coaching goal is to develop a "winning attitude and pride in accomplishment," she says. This year, she adds, the field hockey team "set everyone straight, showing they could win. Believing in yourself is contagious: everyone's starting to believe now."

Loss-Less

So far this season, the Radcliffe cagers sport a 2-0 record, having beaten Emmanuel College and Boston University.

Kleinfelder says she would not be surprised to see a professional women's basketball team in five years. "Women's basketball wasn't exciting five years ago," she recalls, but "olympic women's basketball and Title IX have helped make women's basketball more exciting by developing players' skills."

Kleinfelder says successful women players are now finding good positions as coaches for women's college basketball teams. However, she adds, "this may not last because men are moving in to coach women's teams."

In team sports, she says, it helps to have a woman coach a women's team because "70 per cent of the coaching is done off the floor," and men can't go into the locker rooms to talk to the players.