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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 6, 1998)
ITTìTTlnews L esbians can have such a complicated response to women’s basketball. Is it about guessing— or hoping— which players are possibly dykes? Is it about sitting in the stands scanning the crowd with your binoculars, pretending that you are watching the game when in fact you’re checking out cuties across the way? Or is it about seeing strong, powerful women play excel lent basketball, unfettered by sexual stereotypes? Clearly, whatever the reason, women’s roundball is a big draw for lesbians eager to indulge their senses in the sweaty experience. And that’s exactly what many will do come Nov. 8, the date of the home-game opener for the Portland Power, the women’s professional basketball team that is part of the American Basketball League. During the 1997-98 season, the Power was the ABL’s Western Conference champion. Not only does Nov. 8 mark opening night for the Power, it is also Basic Rights Oregon Night. The Portland-based BRO is a statewide group dedicated to fighting for queer civil rights. It will have a booth set up at Memorial Colise um during the game. The Power is one of the mast recent Oregon employers to sign onto BR O ’s Fair Workplace Project, which asks employers to adopt or amend their personnel policies to state that dis crimination based on sexual orientation will be prohibited in the workplace. The Power has also given the group more than 25,000 “A BL bucks,” which BRO has dis tributed in mass mailings. If you buy your Power ticket with an A BL buck, you will save $1 on your ticket purchase price and the A BL will make a $ 1 contribution to BRO. Though BRO is encouraging people to use these bucks at the opening game, they can be used for any home game during the season. According to Jean Harris, BR O ’s executive director, the partnership with the Power began last year when the Power donated four box seats to BRO. “Let whoever wants to use them, use them. We’re trying to reach out to all sorts of people,” is what Harris remembers Power personnel say ing. At the time, Harris felt the need to provide further information about her organization. “I said, ‘You know we’re the ones that fight all the anti-gay measures? You know we’re identified with fighting the right wing?’ They said, ‘Yes, and we’re very supportive of that.’ ” This year, the Power approached BRO staff and asked them if they would like their group to be the nonprofit headlined at the home opener, Harris gladly agreed. A big Power fan herself, Harris says of the partnership: “We’re both struggling.... Everyone in Oregon should support both of these things.” P umped on the P ower Portland's women's professional basketball team gears up for its third season by L is B accigalu p p i D uring a Power practice, C oach Lin Dunn is putting the players through a series of drills, some of which they are forced to repeat until they get it right. “Slow down! W hat’s your hurry?” Dunn yells. “Slow down, what’s your hurry! Slow dow n...” Finally, exasperated, she yells, “You’re like a bunch of chickens with your heads cut off.. .getting in line for Thanks giving.” Throughout the drill, veter an player Katy Steding defends Danielle McCulley, a 6-foot-3- inch forward and the first- round draff pick in the A BL this year. They’re really going at one another— waving arms, grab bing and shoving. In between drills, while Dunn is yelling, M cCulley stands behind Steding, who has gotten clunked with one of The Power at practice Dunn’s “Goddangit, why did you do that?” questions. McCulley gently “I think we’ve got a lot of chemistry on the team,” she says. “I think you’re going to see a big straightens Steding’s jersey. Eventually the players get it right. difference.” This team is not the same team from last “ '% J' ou saw us making a bunch of mistakes out year. In addition to Smith and McCulley, there there,” Rhonda Smith tells me after prac- are three other new players, all guards: Averill Roberts, Debra Williams and Sonja Henning. tice. Smith, a 6-foot-2-inch forward, played for The Power is also fortunate to have as a practice player Shelley Sheetz, who was a point guard Seattle her first two years in the ABL. She was last year for Colorado. traded to Long Beach last year before the draft, and ended up in Portland after Long Beach dis Returning players are last season’s league banded. MVP Natalie Williams, DeLisha Milton, Sted- ing, Sylvia Crawley and Elaine Powell. Gone Dunn rides the players about their mistakes, from the Power are Lisa Harrison, Falisha but, says Smith, “When you do make mistakes, Wright, Molly Goodenbour, Sheila Frost, Lati- it’s OK. She gives you alternatives.” Smith didn’t see a lot of playing time in Seat cia Morris and Jennifer Jacoby. There will also be some changes in the A BL tle, though her stats are impressive. About her play last season, Smith says, “After awhile my designed to accommodate— and encourage— better television coverage of the games. Half confidence was so gone, I wasn’t really playing time will be 12 minutes, down from 15 last year, well anyway.” Now, she says, she’s playing with more confi and there are new rules that should result in dence. She adds: “Coach Dunn gives us a lot of fewer free throws. The ABL has a new contract with Fox freedom. I love the way she handles the team. It Sports in which there are incentives for Fox to makes me excited to be out there.” carry the games live, rather than on tape delay. Smith is also excited about the team as a This should be an improvement over last year, whole. when the network sometimes cut segments from the middle of games. There will be 16 games on Fox, and Black Entertainment Television will no longer carry ABL games. C B S, meanwhile, has promised to televise two games during the ABL finals, and the Power is working with local television sta tions to broadcast home games. “We’re hoping to have as many as six or eight home games on local TV this year,” says Power spokesman Nelson Holmberg. S ome lesbians perceive the ABL’s focus on players with husbands— and television’s attempts to avoid obvious lesbians when scan ning the crowd at games— to be homophobic. Harris says she thinks it’s different when it comes to the Power. She points to its continu ing, unsolicited support of BRO. “In the sports world,” Harris says, “homo phobia is really hard.... If you’re raised in the women’s sports world, you don’t talk about your sexual orientation. It’s just the way the sports world is. But you know there are more lesbians involved in sports than Martina. 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