Growing up in Rochester, N.Y., in the 1980s, Wendy Walters was drawn to athletics and didn’t let unequal opportunities for girls hold her back.
As a youngster in seventh and eighth grade, Walters was among a few girls who challenged the gender restrictions of the Catholic Youth Organization, a church-based sports and recreation association.
“The only sport they had for girls was cheerleading; so a few of us girls decided we would try out for the boys’ basketball team,” recalls Walters. “One girl actually made it onto the team,” ultimately pushing the organization to start a girls’ basketball team.
Walters’ success as a middle school activist of sorts taught her that barriers, even institutional ones, can be broken. Today, she is director of Membership Services and Student-Athlete Affairs – Infractions Appeals Committees with the National Collegiate Athletic Association. She is among a small group of women of color in the upper echelons of the NCAA headquarters in Indianapolis.
