According to the 1910 Pathfinder, WCU’s original yearbook, girls’ sports activities at West Chester can be dated again as a way as 1891; that turned into the yr of the primary annual area meet. As for prepared team sports, the exact date isn’t always recognized, but inside the 1910 Pathfinder, three interclass basketball groups comprised a Senior, Junior, and a Middler group. These teams might play against every other in a match to decide the faculty’s champion. The next large alternate to see become when the Young Women’s Athletic Association (YWAA) first seemed inside the 1915 edition of The Serpentine.
This gave the women at West Chester a risk to prepare girls’ athletics in the school. The very next 12 months is when swimming came onto the level. At the same time, the first swimming meet changed into held beneath the course of the Girl’s Athletic Association (Originally the YWCA), and inside the same college yr, women’s dance was regarded in The Serpentine. In 1917, tennis and hiking have been both activities that were added up in that 12 months’ Serpentine. In the subsequent school yr, Miss Hamilton and Mr. Finnegan got the sector hockey sticks for the women. Now in the 20s, we keep looking for more trade with an organized volleyball group in 1921.
Baseball is likewise stated right here, but it would be a while earlier than a prepared team. Field hockey became an organized recreation the following season in 1922, and in that same fall, there has been a tennis event set via Mrs. N.D. George. In 1923, female athletes sooner or later could receive their W’s (like varsity letters); the primary were received using the senior basketball crew. At the top of the last decade in 1929, the Women’s Athletic Association (Separate from the YWCA and GAA) became organized to “foster beliefs of good sportsmanship, to growing participation in all sports activities and to increase management and initiative all through the pupil body.”
The next decade provided new athletic possibilities as the 1935 Serpentine speaks approximately new campus activities, including mass volleyball, ping-pong, shuffleboard, handball, hand tennis, bowling, darts, and archery tournaments. Roller skating turned into added the following year. In 1937, the WAA became a member and was officially diagnosed via the Women’s Division of the National Amateur Athletic Federation. More sports activities and activities were added within the subsequent year, including golfing, badminton, modern-day dancing, tap dancing, and fencing. West Chester also participated at the Shippensburg Play Day in that same yr. Play Days had been days where the ladies could split up and compete towards every different in various bodily sports and had been the first steps in intercollegiate sports activities.
Next yr in 1939, riflery and horseback riding were new sports, and West Chester participated in Play Days at Temple, University of Pennsylvania, and Immaculata. There had been additionally unique journeys for dance demonstration. All-superstar groups were new as nicely, and those teams contained the high-quality girl’s athletes West Chester needed to offer in every recreation. In the 1939 Serpentine, there may be a page on “Our Rooters.” This is the earliest sign of what might emerge as the West Chester cheerleaders. The 1940s brought softball to West Chester as it became mentioned in the 1940 difficulty of The Serpentine.
There have been more Play Days that year, but it was barely greater targeted as there was a Hockey Play Day at Millersville State Teachers College and an intercollegiate play day at Temple. In 1941, the WAA modified their name to the Women’s Recreation Association (WRA), and the opposite information from that college 12 months will be the prepared intercollegiate video games/fits that had been held: two badminton fits (Bryn Mawr and Swarthmore), two subject hockey matches (Ursinus and Immaculata) and one basketball sport (Immaculata).
Two years later, in 1943, there has been a push for a stepped forward bodily health application. For the next 12 months, the WRA had each Woman at West Chester mechanically enrolled inside the WRA. This new program had lessons focused on area hockey, hiking, lively games, swimming, conditioning physical activities, bicycling, restrictive activities, speedball, soccer, basketball, fold and barn dancing, curler skating, and small video games. A few years later, in 1949, the Modern Dance Club was prepared, and the all-stars were invited to the All-College and Middle Atlantic subject hockey tournaments at Swarthmore.
In 1950, the archery group went to the intercollegiate match at Swarthmore and entered the National Archery Telegraph Tournament. Then in 1952, the softball group became in The Serpentine. However, the most effective played some games because the college did not sponsor a complete intercollegiate softball software. For the first time, West Chester hosted the yearly conference of the Pennsylvania Division of the Athletic Federation of College Women. Miss Carol Keener, who became the president of the WRA, presided at the conference. In addition to that year, there was a Tumbling and Rhythmic Club introduced. In the 1953 Serpentine, Anita Page is the primary character of color pictured as a WRA officer, and because the treasurer also made the All College 2nd group in area hockey.
In 1956, Lacrosse and Synchronized swimming groups were brought, and in 1959, the soccer crew is delivered. The largest flow in 1959 became the Women’s Intercollegiate Athletic Program (W.I.A.P.) to behavior Women’s intercollegiate activities. It is a break-free WRA, and the sports apart of WIAP were area hockey, basketball, swimming, tennis, and lacrosse. Mrs. E. Taylor became the advisor, at the same time as Pat Harrison and Margo Stein were the co-chairmen. The Nineteen Sixties brought the WRA to exchange their name returned to the WAA because the enterprise now omitted intramural sports activities.
The WIAP created a sports statistics committee to provide proper public family members about ladies’ sports. 1961 held the first season of the women’s gymnastics team under Coach Pawlus. Golf could have their first intercollegiate season inside the fall of 1962, wherein they hosted the Eastern Intercollegiate Golf Championships. The next large occasion befell in 1969 wherein West Chester basketball beat Western Carolina inside the Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (CIAW) National Tournament to win the country-wide championship fifty six-39.
