When it comes to young women in sports, St. Cloud Area School District 742 has a robust history. Starting in 1972, Peg Brenden became the first girl in the state to earn a letter for competing on a boys’ tennis team after arguing her rights in court and with the school district. Later that year, Title IX of the Education Amendment Act prohibiting discrimination upon gender within educational institutions was enacted. Brenden was just the first trendsetter for women in sports from District 742. The torch has been carried on by 1987 Tech High School graduate Dr. Nicole LaVoi, senior lecturer on social and behavioral sciences of physical activity at the University of Minnesota, co-director of the Tucker Center for Research on Girls and Women in Sports, co-founder of the Minnesota Youth Sport Research Consortium and published author of “Women in Sports Coaching.”
LaVoi competed in tennis while attending Tech High School and played as a freshman at the state-level.
Growing up, she didn’t have female athlete mentors. As an advocate of female coaches and players in sports, she now finds it ironic that she herself did not have a female to look up to.
“My mentor was Jim Murphy, “Murph,” who later became the founder of the St. Cloud Tennis Foundation and was a retired professor from St. John’s University,” says LaVoi. “My other mentor was Larry Sundby, my high school coach in tennis.”
LaVoi played any sport she could, but by high school her love turned to tennis and helped launch a successful collegiate career in the sport.
“It has shaped everything I’ve done my whole life: my schools, friends and career,” says LaVoi.
After graduation LaVoi, attended Gustavus Adolphus College where her tennis team won the NCAA National Championship in 1990. She graduated in 1991 and went on to obtain her Master’s Degree in Kinesiology at the University of Minnesota. She was the assistant women’s tennis coach at Carleton College during that same time. From 1994-1998, she was the head women’s tennis coach and assistant professor of physical education at Wellesley Collge. She then went back to school and finished her doctoral degree and became the director of sports programming for the Center of Ethical Education and The Mendelson Center for Sports, Character and Community at the University of Notre Dame. In 2005, she moved back to Minnesota and her current position.
“I got really interested in coaching and women in sports when I coached at Wellesley,” says LaVoi. “I started wondering how sports intersected and make a difference in women’s lives. Sports were such a positive thing in my life.”
For the past 13 years, LaVoi has been working with the Tucker Center doing research. Her primary passion is women coaches.
“I feel strongly that girls and women should have more female role models,” explains LaVoi. “At the high school level, female head coaches are rare.”
Using the research the Tucker Center gathers, she helps educate women and educational institutions to create social change in sports by encouraging more women to be involved, be role models and choose careers in sports. Each year, the University of Minnesota hosts the Women Coaches Symposium bringing together over 350 women coaches across all sports and levels. The research is used for networking, professional development, support and encouragement of young women in coaching.
“We take the research and turn in into education and outreach which will create change,” says LaVoi.
She is not stopping anytime too soon.
“I will continue to do what I’m doing,” says LaVoi. “I just really think it is so important… My job is my passion. If you identify what you’re good at and find a career where they intersect, that is where the magic happens.”
Although her job is her passion, she feels very strongly about balance in life. She does yoga, enjoys reading and painting rocks, anything outside including golf, walking and biking. And just maybe, you can find her on the tennis court as a reminder of where it all began.
Interested in learning more about women in sports? Read LaVoi’s blog.
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