The Canes’ women’s tennis coach, a ‘Title IX baby,’ grew up playing with the boys — and only the boys
‘‘ FROM ABOUT AGE 9 TO 11 I WAS THE ONLY GIRL ON OUR TRAVEL SOCCER TEAM BECAUSE THERE WEREN’T A LOT OF GIRLS THAT WANTED TO THROW ELBOWS WITH THE BOYS. Paige Yaroshuk-Tews, UM women’s tennis coach
Title IX, the 1972 federal law mandating gender equity at educational institutions, marks its 50th anniversary Thursday.
Paige Yaroshuk-Tews, 48, was named the University of Miami women’s tennis coach in 2001 and has a career record of 396-138. In the past 18 NCAA tournaments, she has led the Hurricanes to eight Elite Eight appearances and 14 appearances in the Sweet 16. The Hurricanes were 19-6 (10-3 ACC) in 2022, finishing ninth in the ITA national rankings, the best year for the program since 2013.
Yaroshuk-Tews, married with two children — Emma, 16, and Landon, 13— starred in tennis at Miami Killian High and at UCLA, where she played on an athletic scholarship. Her father Ernie Sr. played baseball for UM coach Ron Fraser and along with Yaroshuk-Tews is in the UM Sports Hall of Fame; Ernie Jr. played minor-league baseball with the New York Yankees.
Paige Yaroshuk-Tews spent endless hours as a Kendall youngster getting splinters pulled out of her body by the de facto neighborhood nurse — her mother.
That’s what happens when second base in the makeshift baseball field you built with your dad and buddies is “a palm tree full of thorns,’’ she said.
Yaroshuk-Tews was a Title IX baby. She was 13 months from being born when Title IX was enacted in the summer of 1972.
But years later, she still was the only girl hitting baseballs, throwing footballs
and kicking soccer balls with the boys — and only the boys.
“I don’t know what the girls were doing,’’ said Yaroshuk-Tews, the UM women’s tennis coach since 2001. “We played most of our sports out of K-Land. From about age 9 to 11 I was the only girl on our travel soccer team because there weren’t a lot of girls that wanted to throw elbows with the boys. I was also the only girl on the Little League baseball team. My dad and brother were baseball players, and I’d get my cuts at bat after shagging balls for them.”
Neighborhood pickup basketball games in the Yaroshuk driveway
“would get so heated that we would set up one of those old-school, huge VHS camcorders because we would foul the heck out
of each other and somebody would go up for a layup and get suckerpunched. So every night after work, my dad would watch the video and break down the film to decide who actually won.
“I never grew up thinking there were any restrictions on me as a girl,’’ she said. “But things looked very different then, not nearly as competitive. Girls and women’s sports are a different beast now. I grew up in a house where you went and did your thing, boy or girl.”
How have you benefited from Title IX?
“If there were no Title IX, there would be no women’s tennis program. If there were no Title IX, I don’t think you’d be talking to me, Patti [Rizzo], Amy [Deem] or Kate [Meier]. The reality is the money-generating sports
are football and men’s basketball. If we were just running a business and talking about dollars and cents, at the end of the day I really don’t think you’d be talking to any of us. So look at all the women across the board, whether you’re talking
D-I, D-II or D-III, that have had an opportunity to make their dreams come true. And that is the impactful piece of Title IX.”
You were a Title IX baby. How aware of it were you growing up?
“I never knew it existed. My parents were obviously aware of it, because they lived through all the changes and legalities. But nobody talked about it. I was not raised around people that ever treated women as less than when it came to sports. Then, when I went to college in the early 1990s, I obviously was educated about it but honestly always felt as a D-I woman athlete that I was treated exceptionally well.’’
Do you have a responsibility moving forward to make sure the conversations and education continue regarding Title IX?
“My entire team is an educated group of women. You have to be living in a box if you’re a D-I athlete and haven’t heard of Title IX. I have a group of women who understand the importance and are grateful the law was passed. But as time passes, the piece of how we got here will get more faded. That’s why it’s everybody’s responsibility who work with women on a daily basis in athletics and the workplace to keep talking about a topic that is so important.”