I’m just doing my job, Don

Hey, Don Cherry — thanks for your concern, but I’m actually doing just fine.

I’m a sports reporter for NewsTalk 1010, a Toronto talk radio station that covers all of the local pro sports teams. I myself mainly cover the Leafs and Toronto FC. When I’m assigned to a home game, I’m often the only female reporter there. When the game is over, I head into the dressing room for the post-game interviews and reactions, just like all the other reporters.

And that is apparently a problem for Don Cherry. Last Saturday night, during the Coach’s Corner segment of Hockey Night in Canada, he said, “I don’t believe women should be in the male dressing room.”

He was addressing a recent controversy where an NHL player was accused of sexism after verbally sparring with a female reporter who was asking pointed questions after the player’s team had suffered a tough loss. In that case, the player denied being sexist and said he would’ve treated a male reporter the same way. The reporter seemed to agree. After briefly addressing that controversy, Cherry continued to insist that female reporters have no place in the male dressing room. He asked his co-host Ron MacLean if he’d feel comfortable knowing that his hockey-playing wife was being approached by male reporters as she walked out of the shower.

Take it from someone who’s been there: That doesn’t happen. Reporters don’t go in the change rooms unannounced and chase around naked men while they’re rinsing the suds off.

It’s a professional environment, where players are aware exactly when the reporters are being let in. The dressing rooms are large, and the interviews are only conducted in the main changing area. Athletes who do not feel comfortable speaking with the media can easily avoid reporters alto- gether. The media is not given free rein to simply wander the facility. We aren’t exactly kept in chains, but there is a professional understanding that we will behave ourselves during the interviews, which are overseen by team representatives.

Have I seen bare butts? Yes. Sometimes a player will wander out of the shower area without bothering to cover up. But it doesn’t distract me from doing my job. Nor does it seem to be a major problem

Cherry might be surprised to learn I can’t just wander into the Leafs’ shower with my recorder

for the athletes. If they feel uncomfortable with a female being present, they can easily towel-dry themselves in one of the many other areas that are out of sight for reporters.

If the dynamic still doesn’t work, the media relations representative for each team can conduct the post-game interviews in a completely different setting. For instance, at the beginning of last season, the Toronto FC protocol had reporters doing interviews while players cooled down in the on-site workout facility. No nudity there.

That’s one option; other teams have found different protocols that balance the needs of their players and the physical layout of their facilities. The details are irrelevant. The important thing is that it doesn’t take that much creativity to find an appropriate way to allow female sports reporters to do their job.

Cherry also claimed that female athletes would object to men (the overwhelming majority of sports reporters are still male) wandering around their change rooms after a game. He could be right about that, and I think the same standards should be held for female athletics. Let the male reporters in the change room and if needed, conduct them in a different location. Use the same common sense that male athletic teams use. Press scrums need not be conducted in a shower stall.

As the only female going into the change room after the game, I don’t feel intimidated or out of place. The players and coaches answer my questions, just as they would for any other reporter. The media relations staff is always helpful and if anything, I think they’re quietly rooting for me. Don Cherry said he doesn’t think men and women are equal — he holds women up higher than men, and puts them on a pedestal. He should be pleased, then — everywhere I go, I’m supported by the players and the teams.

It was just over 50 years ago that Canada saw its first female sportscaster. They’re becoming a more frequent sight inside the broadcast booth, too. I suspect before long, I won’ t be the only woman in a change room after the game. And other than Don Cherry, no one seems too upset by that.