The issue jumped onto the sports pages last week with allegations that Penn State basketball coach Rene Portland harassed a player into quitting the Lady Lions because Portland thought the player is gay. The player, Jennifer Harris, denies she is a lesbian, but enlisted a San Francisco-based lesbian advocacy group, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, to take up her cause.

The issue is a sensitive one for the highly successful Portland. In 1986, Portland told The Chicago Sun-Times that she did not allow lesbians to play for Penn State. Portland did not return phone calls for this story.

"(Lesbianism) is the open secret," said Vikki Krane, director of the women's studies program at Bowling Green University in Ohio. "Coaches use it against each other all the time."

Sometimes, coaches will allude to another school having a lesbian coach and/or gay players to drive a prospect toward their school. Coaches know it is done, but many don't want to talk about it.

One Division I women's coach, who requested anonymity, said she knows there are lesbians in college basketball, and she said that can disrupt a team, especially if players date. So coaches' and players' sexual orientation can become ammunition in a recruiting battle.

St. Francis (Pa.) coach Jill Poe said the issue comes up more frequently in women's basketball because of the sport's higher profile than other women's sports. She added there are many things brought up in recruiting, from coaches' salaries to school facilities and academics. Poe said it is her policy not to mention sexual preference.

"I never ask a kid about their relationships," Buscaglia said. "And I have never come across people who do that kind of recruiting, and I never do that. We recruit players and don't get into their private lives as far as sexual orientation, religion or anything like that."

The "L" word most likely is not said, but implied, said University of Minnesota sports sociologist Mary Jo Kane, who directs the Tucker Center, which focuses on women in sports.

"Rival coaches might say, 'There are rumors I heard about that team or that coach. We run a different kind of program here. We have values here.' They talk in code. The problem is not lesbians in sports. It is homophobia."

The issue is more visible in women's sports because many gay men remain hidden, Kane said. She added there are no hard numbers of how many lesbians there are in college basketball, because many people still won't talk about it.

Schenley graduate Cindy Dallas, who played at Illinois, said sexual orientation is private and has nothing to do with basketball or any sport. She has played on teams with lesbians.

"I know it is prevalent in women's basketball," she said. "In men's sports, if a fan finds out his hero of a football player is gay, then the fan says, 'He can't be.' People might have thought I was gay because I am confident and have an athletic build."

Dallas, who was recruited by Portland, said the coach never mentioned sexual orientation. Some female athletes are upset the discussion even takes place.

"In our sport, so many players are stereotyped," said Cash, a McKeesport High School graduate who played on two NCAA championship teams at the University of Connecticut. "Sexuality is never questioned on the men's side. I know I am a role model for young girls, and I tell them to be comfortable in their own skin."

DePaul coach Doug Bruno, the Women's Basketball Coaches Association president, said the policy is to recruit players, regardless of their personal life. He said the association respects the individual privacy of young women. The WBCA gets involved in relationship issues only when they affect a player's physical well being or academic or athletic performance.

"This is a world of inclusion. And a world of recognition," Bruno said. "That is what is great about basketball. It mirrors the values of this country and is grounded on individualism for the purpose of the larger good. This is America, the land of the free."

Pat Griffin is director of It Takes a Team Education Campaign for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Issues in Sport, and professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. Griffin conducts homophobia training, including holding a session at Penn State in February 1992.

"(Homophobia) is still more far widespread than anybody would like to think," Griffin said. "Coaches will tell recruits there are lesbians at other schools, even if they don't actually say the word. The perception is there."

Griffin added there is a negative image associated with being a lesbian. She said society forces an athletic and competitive woman to present a feminine, heterosexual image.

Gateway girls basketball coach Jennifer Bruce Scott, who played at Pitt, has a daughter, junior Shayla Scott, who is one of the top recruits in the area. Bruce Scott said sexual orientation has no relevance in recruiting. She added she knows there are lesbians in women's basketball and her daughter realizes that, too. But that doesn't bother either of them.

"It is about making the right decision," Bruce Scott said. "There are always rumors. If coaches use that in recruiting, then that is wrong. I have never looked at that issue as a problem when I was being recruited and I plan to not let it have any bearing on my daughter's decision."

Craig Prosser, father of Oakland Catholic junior Erica Prosser said he has no problem with a person's sexual orientation. He said he tries to instill in his daughter to treat people the way she wants to be treated. Prosser said what would be the difference between a lesbian atmosphere or one where a male coach tries to have a sexual relationship with his players?

"I will probably think about the issue more once coaches can talk face-to-face with my daughter," Prosser said. "I would never take a coach's word for something about another coach. We will check it out and decide. Sometimes, you just have to go with your gut feeling."

Serra Catholic senior Laura Grimm, who recently made a verbal commitment to Colgate, said the word "lesbian" never came up during the recruiting process.

"I guess there could have been subtleties," she said. "But I don't let stuff like that affect me on the court. Off the court, I might think about it more in the locker room."

"We all make choices in life," he said. "I would hate to put my daughter in an environment that was all (gay), because we have different beliefs. You hear a lot about that in women's basketball, but you have to trust your own kid, and I do."

"I recruit a 'player,' " he said. "The things I will discuss are if the player has been in trouble with the law or with academics. There are homosexuals in men's sports, too. What does that have to do with being a good basketball player or a good person? Their (sex) life is their own business."

Frani Williams, of Upper St. Clair, said she might be naive, but no one mentioned sexual orientation during the recruitment of her daughter, Hofstra freshman Niki Williams, a Seton-La Salle graduate.

The lesbian issue is not just about players. Some coaches are afraid of coming out because of the stereotype, said Heather Barber, associate professor at the University of New Hampshire, who has done research on this issue.

"They are in a high-profile sport, and if they don't get the best players they can lose their jobs," Barber said. "A coach's sexual orientation could be used against them."

Barber added there is plenty of anecdotal evidence surrounding the use of negative recruiting, but there aren't many large-scale studies to support it.

"When you want the best players you will try many things and say many things to get them to come to your school," Barber said. "You might take the parents aside and tell them they seem like a nice family, and they might want to do some checking on the other schools their daughters are looking at."

Norma O'Rourke, of Brookline, mother of Penn State freshman Brianne O'Rourke, said nothing like that came up when Portland recruited her daughter.

"Rene Portland is a role model and a great coach," Norma O'Rourke said. "I think she is the target by this group. I am glad my daughter is there."

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