On Thursday, the 21st of April we interviewed our 5/6th grade PE teacher, Luis Hernandez. He has experience in female sports due to him being a coach of middle schools and high school girls’ teams. Luis has been coaching the girls for a few years now and he gave us some information on how girls’ sports are treated differently than men’s sports.

Luis told us that immediately after switching to coaching girls’ teams, he notice a huge fan difference. Boys noticeably had way more fans than girls by a lot. He said that this is because when girls play basketball it’s a lot more fundamental whereas boys players are more flashy. In recent years, it has gotten way better. As a middle schooler, I came to support our middle school girls’ volleyball team was coached by Luis. In the interview, he states that he noticed that there were many more fans than before. He went on to say that Our generation is starting to make a difference that is becoming noticeable. Our volleyball team did really well and as a school, we did a great job of supporting them. Even though our school’s athletics program isn’t the greatest Luis is always motivated to coach and I am truly inspired.

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On Friday, the 4th of March our group was honored to meet with Chris Bosh. Chris Bosh is a 2x NBA champion and 11x All-Star. Chris Bosh has been working to fix this so women can be paid equally in professional sports.

Bosh mentioned that he believes that later on down the road woman will receive equal pay. He also talked about what it’s like to be an athlete and how women have to work twice as hard to be where they are. He told us players like Chris Paul and LeBron James are players that are really fighting for change. It was very crucial to speak to a former professional athlete who understand the issue we are studying.

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On Friday, the 25th of February my group was honored to meet with Leonard Armato. Leonard Armato, a sports agent, and entrepreneur is most known for representing NBA stars Shaquille O’Neal, Hakeem Olajuwon, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. His career includes creating the Golden Boy and Dunkman sports marketing brands for Oscar De La Hoya and Shaq. Leonard studied law and founded Management Plus Enterprises to combine his interests in the legal field and sports media.

Leonard told us that when working in the sports industry he realized how much women were mistreated in sports. Ever since this realization, Leonard has been working hard to fix this issue. Leonard even created a volleyball league that brought men and women together under one roof, with equal prize money and equal media exposure on television. Leonard has said “I’ve spoken a lot about inequality in sports when it comes to gender. Men’s sports in our society are given so much more exposure, credibility than women. So with beach volleyball, when we made prize money equal for men and women and made TV time equal for men and women, I think that was a big step. In the Olympic Games, women’s beach volleyball gets a good
audience and people love watching it.”

When interviewing Leonard he told us his experience when trying to make a change. He told us that when he made the suggestion about the beach volleyball league he received backlash. We learned that people in the sports industry can be very cruel towards women. It was important to speak to someone who worked in the sports industry and has experience with the issue we are studying and shared great information.

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On Friday, February 11th, our group had the privilege of meeting Felisa Israel. Felisa Isreal was a founding member of the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury. Felisa informed us that when she was offered the opportunity to start a team in a completely new league, she jumped straight in.

When starting the team it was her job to make the team presentable to fans. Felisa stated then when going to see NBA games live the first thing you see are videos of the team from the past. She had none of this and worked very hard to get the team where it is today. This team has been very successful in winning the western conference title six times and won the championship three times.

Felisa told us that she believes individuals should be compensated for their abilities, and that you either have them or you don’t. As a result, many good WNBA players should be compensated more than some bad NBA players. Felisa also mentioned that she has invited dance groups to NBA and WNBA games for halftime shows due of her dancing expertise.

It was incredible to meet her and hear directly about what it was like to be a powerful woman in a male-dominated sports sector. We learned a lot about her work background and how the Phoenix Mercury came to be. It was a fantastic interview!

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Yesterday, I presented with my social justice group, about our topic. We had many articles on the issue of the gender pay gap and how women get treated as athletes. I was very confident while presenting because I worked very hard on the slideshow. My group did a fantastic job collaborating. I believe it’s important to note that the lowest-paid player in the NBA gets paid 925,000 yearly and they don’t even get playing time 90% of the time. However, women who are star players and give it their all every day get paid 100,000-200,000 yearly.

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