Following a day of classes at Lick-Wilmerding High School, on a recent spring day, the baseball team boards a bus and heads for practice at the shipshape, college-level Skyline baseball field. Simultaneously, the softball team walks down to Balboa Park to practice on a lumpy Park and Rec baseball field.
photo by Tessa Fastiff
photo by Odin Thien-An Marin
The difference in facilities used by the two teams raises the question of equity. Why are more funds committed to bus one team to a great field while the other team is relegated to a shoddy field within walking distance? Is the disparity caused by gender bias in supporting men’s teams over females? The baseball team is made up of mostly male-identifying people; the softball team is made up of female-identifying.
LWHS athletic director Eliot Smith said the difference in funding is because the baseball team practices at Skyline College. A baseball field has different specifications than a softball field. Smith says there is a difference in funding for baseball and softball — but only because of the team’s need for a regulation field. “A bus goes out to Skyline College, and then we have to rent the facility from Skyline College. So that’s a big expense which we don’t have to do for any of our other sports.”
In other sports there is no difference in facilities for men’s and women’s teams.
In 2019, the last normal spring sports season, the baseball team received about $10,000 more than the softball team. LWHS Chief Financial Officer Jeanette Moore explained that most of this difference was the expense of busing the team to and from Skyline.
According to Moore, “What decides the budget often comes down to how many people sign up and how many games get scheduled. We do our best as a school to find the funding for all of our student athletics programs. The costs have been skyrocketing quite a bit, primarily due to the cost of buses which have doubled this year.”
Smith estimates that the bus to Skyline costs around $500 a day and around $25,000 a season. Because of this everyday transportation, baseball is the most expensive sport at LWHS. Smith said, “We would do that for any sport. Girls, boys, it doesn’t matter.”
City College provides the facilities for all other LWHS sports teams to practice and play.
The total athletics budget is about $650,000. When talking about budget allocation for each sports team, Moore said, “It depends on how many kids sign up, how many coaches do you need and how many buses do you need.”
The softball team practices at Balboa park, so transportation is unnecessary. The only fee is a small permit. Moore said, “We don’t have to budget money for going across the street. So that’s the difference, the bus and renting the facility.”
Skyline field is the size of a baseball field — which is much larger than a softball field — so it would not make sense for the two teams to share the field or switch off days because then the softball team would be playing on the wrong sized field.
The field difference is one of the main arguments used to show the inequality. Balboa Park is rarely mowed, and feces and other waste is often in the outfield. Softball captain Kate Hoffner ’23 said, “Balboa is not the best field for us.”
photo by Mira Hoey
Softball captain Carly Poggi-Li ’22 talked about the benefits of playing on a nice field, saying “you feel more official and you feel more empowered to try harder when you’re at a really good facility.” Additionally, LWHS only has permits for Balboa Park for one and a half hours instead of two.
Skyline has batting cages, pitching bullpens, an excellent score board and comfortable seating for fans.
When asked about upgrading the softball facility, Smith said, “Well, there is no facility that we’re aware of. Otherwise we would.”
In response to requests for an upgraded field, the athletics department rented the softball field at San Francisco State for the softball team to use on Fridays this past season. The field is a considerable improvement from Balboa. Smith said “We are hoping to be able to use the S.F. State Softball Field a lot more next year for practices and games, when their softball team is not using the field”.
Smith also reiterated that for all teams, new uniforms and equipment would be provided whenever a captain or coach asks. “When it comes to baseball and softball, it’s the same question: what do you need? We’ll just make sure to take care of it.”
One of Hoffner’s main issues with the treatment of the two teams was the softball team’s old uniforms. “The main problem was the uniforms that we had season would unbutton,” she said.“I shouldn’t be worried about this when I am playing softball.”
Poggi-Li added, “The original uniform was not the one that we had requested. And we only had one color. Normally teams get two colors, one for home and one for away.”
The baseball team has three uniforms (home, away, alternate) and an athletic shirt.
This season, the softball team received one new uniform.
The softball captains faced challenges getting new equipment and uniforms. At a pre-season meeting with Smith, Grossman said, “We had to do some convincing and talk about how the softball program is even larger than the baseball program,” said Grossman (this year the baseball team has 18 members while the softball team has 21).
Grossman added that Smith was receptive to the captain’s requests. “He was pretty understanding but I feel like we shouldn’t have had to ask. It should have been evident. They see the number of people who sign up and they see our scores.” She also said that this issue with getting equipment was unique to softball. “Every other sport I’ve played at Lick, even being a captain on other sports, I haven’t had to ask for things. It’s really just been with softball.”
While baseball has been at LWHS for many years, softball is a very new sport at LWHS, founded in 2018.
Because the team is new there is less equipment and infrastructure for the team. Over time it can be expected that more equipment will be bought and better practice fields will be found.
Softball has been growing in popularity ever since its founding. Poggi-Li said, “every year it just becomes more and more clear that people really love the program.”
