WOMEN MAKING INROADS.

Byline: Holly Coryell Associated Press

A funny thing happened to Cathy Haker just before her 20th high school reunion. She opened up her yearbook to reminisce and suddenly realized something had been missing all those years - photos of her field hockey, basketball and softball teams.

The boys? Sure, their team pictures were all in there. Not the girls, though.

``I was astounded,'' Haker said. ``Then I thought I didn't even know it back then, I wasn't even aware that our picture wasn't in the yearbook. It never even dawned on me. At that point, if the opportunity was there for me (to participate in sports), I was excited.''

That was 25 years ago at Bethlehem Central School in the suburbs of Albany. Now, as athletic director here at the College of St. Rose, Haker, 42, is one of a growing number of women who are calling the shots for sports programs across the country.

``Women's athletics are being taken very seriously now,'' she said.

They have to be - by law. Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 prohibits sex discrimination in schools that receive federal funds. That means colleges and universities must give women equivalent opportunities on the playing field, as well as in the classroom.

One of the results of the law is that more and more women are making sports administration their careers, and at higher and higher levels.

There are 17 women athletic directors this year in Division I, 38 in Division II and 83 in Division III, according to the 994-member National Collegiate Athletic Association.

More than a quarter of the athletic directors in the 362-member National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics are women this year, spokesman Doug Mosley said.

Neither the NCAA nor the NAIA keeps records on the growth of women athletic directors over the past 25 years, but women in the field say their numbers have increased slowly but steadily.

``There is an increase in the last decade. I don't think that the increase is significant, but the numbers are growing,'' said Betsy Alden, athletic director at San Francisco State University and president of the National Association of College Women Athletic Administrators. ``Where you're going to notice it the most is in the Division I-A ranks.''

In some cases, women have had to fight hostile coaches, alumni and sports boosters to land and then hold onto their A.D. jobs. Others, like Haker, have had a smoother rise.

``I don't view myself as a female athletics director,'' Haker said. ``It wasn't like I had to come in and fix a lot of problems'' in terms of gender equity.