Washington girls’ wage battle off the course

CEDAR RAPIDS - 'No Shirt No Problem” first came to light when the girls' cross country team entered the gym for the fall sports assembly.

It spread like wildfire.

Little did anyone know the ongoing battle behind the argument.

The current clothing policy regarding the girls' cross country team states they at least need to be wearing a tank top when they run, not just sports bras. This is something head coach Lisa Nicol and assistant Carla Wosoba have enforced for five seasons.

'Every year a girl makes a comment at practice and we talk about why it is my rule and it usually dies away,” Nicol said.

This year, that wasn't the case. Instead of a couple girls making comments, a larger force was at work when coming up with the #NoShirtNoProblem hastat.

'At the beginning of the school year we all were just texting in our group message and we just kind of thought about it and it just popped up,” said senior Anne Visser.

The hashtag exploded on Twitter the night before the sports assembly and spread through the student body.

'I was a little worried about it because of how our coaches and staff would take it, but I knew we had the students backing us,” Visser said. 'I think everyone really gets the point of us, we're doing it because we're hot and want to be equal with the guys.

The difference between a shirt a sports bra can mean all the difference for these girls.

'We're going anywhere from three to 10 mile runs and the shirts, granted only weigh a couple ounces and aren't that constricting, but once you run with your shirt off and you realize ‘hey, this feels a lot better.” You want that power,” said senior Sierra Sheets, one of the team captains.

Nicol and Wosoba, who consider themselves strong feminists, said the policy wasn't meant to come off as sexist, something used in arguments against it.

'It was meant more from a protective standpoint,” Nicol said. 'Hearing comments that boys make and not wanting to put male faculty in a position where they feel uncomfortable because of the way a girl is dressed. I think of them as my daughters. I want them to leave our team realizing that they are just as strong, just as powerful, just as intelligent as any male in their lives that they are going to encounter.”

When it comes to other coaches, some agree and some don't, like boys' cross country Coach Willis Harte.

'I think it's a ludicrous policy,” he said. 'I think girls should be able to wear sports bras when they're running, but I think every coach at Wash should be able to establish their rules and the athletes on those teams need to follow those rules.”

The point of reaching a result draws closer and closer as team captains continue to meet with principal Ralph Plagman and others.

'If we could take off our shirts at a certain temperature, it's a compromise both for the coaches and the girls,” Sheets said.

'I like to run with my shirt off,” Visser said. 'It's not a matter of trying to show off, by any means. It gets hot, so I'm hoping to just be able to have a choice, if not that, then equality.”

A compromise still is unclear at this point, but Nicol and Wosoba are hoping to redirect the energy spent on this issue to finishing out the season strong and coming together as a team.