Improving Equity in Women’s Sports
Amy Crosbie has been in the middle of things as far as women’s collegiate athletics for the past quarter of a century.
Born a few years after Title IX legislation was passed in 1972, the California native came to Utah State in 1997 and has been involved in athletics for the last 25-plus years as an outside hitter for USU volleyball, an assistant coach, academic advisor and women’s athletics director at both Weber State and USU.
“I don’t have the same stories that pre-Title IX women have,” admits Crosbie, who returned to her alma mater in July 2019 to serve as USU’s senior associate athletics director and senior woman administrator. “Honestly, when I first came here it didn’t cross my mind that women didn’t have the same opportunities in sports.”
The former Amy Goulding dated and married former USU quarterback Jeff Crosbie while still playing on the volleyball team, and she notes that they both used “the same weight room, the same training room, and the same academic facilities.” However, there were definitely differences, such as members of the volleyball team set up their own equipment for practices, and in order to help raise funds for the program, volleyball players – as well as members of other athletics programs – often cleaned the Spectrum after men’s basketball games or even valet parked cars at football and basketball games.
But Crosbie also came to USU just after women’s soccer was added in 1996 and was here when women’s basketball was reinstated as a varsity program in 2003. Athletics facilities at USU have also increased substantially since her playing days with the addition of the Jim & Carol Laub Athletics-Academics Complex, iFit Sports Performance Center (weight room), West Stadium Center (athletes’ training table) and the Wayne Estes Center (coaches’ offices, volleyball court).
“There are areas where we have definitely grown a ton, and I wish I could have experienced that,” Crosbie says.
Title IX is now a huge part of Crosbie’s job, and in March 2022, she put together what is currently called the Title IX Review Team. Comprised of faculty members and other on-campus personnel, as well as members of the athletics department, the team has been tasked with evaluating USU’s efforts as far as participation numbers, scholarship evaluation, and a “laundry list” of items such facilities, equipment, and access to tutors. Over four years, the team will conduct an evaluation of scholarships and participation numbers every year while rotating through things found on the list.
“I think every institution has work to do to dissolve inequities that come up,” Crosbie notes. “But I do know that as a staff we are operating in a way that we are trying to make sure that the experiences for our student-athletes are as equitable as possible.”
By Jeff Hunter ’96
Portrait of Amy Crosbie by Levi Sim