Title IX at 50: Influential women coaches who made impact on Vermont high school sports (2024)

Thursday, June 23 signifies a milestone day in our country's history: 50 years ago, a landmark bill was signed into law.

Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972 states:

"No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance."

The legislation fostered opportunities for girls and women in sports, at the high school level and up. According to The National Archives, one in 27 girls played sports before Title IX. That number is now two out of every five.

To celebrate Title IX's 50th anniversary, we compiled a list of influential women coaches who made an unforgettable impact on Vermont high school sports. While this is not a definitive account, we considered coaches with long tenures, leadership and program success. We recognize 25 deserving names, but there are many, many women coaches who have changed the state's landscape and left indelible marks in high school sports.

Robin Benjamin Noble, Essex High School

Few eclipsed the success and wins that Noble amassed during her 26-year tenure at the helm of Essex field hockey. Noble, who took over in 1979, retired as the Hornets’ second coach of the program that began in 1970.

Over more than a quarter-century, Noble compiled a 231-112-73 record and guided Essex to seven title games. Noble was inducted into the Vermont Principals’ Association Hall of Fame in 2011. “I think she has been a wonderful coach,” former Middlebury Union coach Gail Jette said of Noble to the Free Press in 2006. “Robin is just terrific. She’s an inspiration to all those girls. They’ve been blessed to have her.”

Jayne Barber, Bellows Falls Union High School

The most recent Vermont Sports Hall of Fame inductee, Barber’s then-school-record of 1,114 points scored stood for 30 years. After graduating from Springfield College in 1980, Barber returned to her alma mater, Bellows Falls, as the girls basketball coach.

Through 28 years and 369 wins, Barber directed the Terriers to five state championships, including an undefeated Division I crown in 2003. She also coached the Terriers’ field hockey program to two state championships. Her coaching and playing career also earned her hall of fame spots with Bellows Falls Union High School (1996), New England Basketball (2009), the Vermont Basketball Coaches Association (2010) and the VPA (2010).

Shirley Bruso, Mill River Union High School

A prominent figure on the Vermont Softball Coaches Association board for 20 years and 28 years at the helm of Mill River softball, Bruso was recognized by the National Federation of State High School Associations as “best in her profession” across an eight-state region in 2008. Of the regional winners, Bruso was named as the national winner in 2008 as well.

Bruso retired from coaching in 2007 after 303 wins and two state titles with Mill River and was inducted into the VPA Hall of Fame a year later.

Sheila Burleigh, South Burlington High School

Burleigh was synonymous with South Burlington girls basketball for 42 years. Nearly 600 wins (597) and five D-I championships are just the tip of what the physical education teacher accomplished.

“Having the privilege of working directly with Sheila for 30 years, I can easily say that she devoted her life to her student-athletes,” former South Burlington athletic director Mike O’Day told the Free Press in 2016.“She gave so much to women’s sports in Vermont by her modeling and her continued pursuit to learn and to become a better coach and teacher.”

Burleigh also began and shaped the field hockey team in 1973 and led the then-Rebels to back-to-back titles in 1984 and 1985 and finished with a 160-49-36 record. She also coached the softball team for two seasons. Her halls of fame honors include the VPA, New England Basketball and Lyndon State.

Barbara Burns-Maynard, Harwood Union High School

After graduating from the University of Vermont in 1975, Burns-Maynard joined the physical education staff at Harwood and started a life of coaching that spanned 70 seasons.

A Peace Corps member, Burns-Maynard coached softball (31 years), field hockey (28), basketball (seven) and golf (four) for the Washington County school. She founded the Vermont Field Hockey Association and co-founded the Twin State Field Hockey all-star game. She was selected to the Northeast Women’s Hall of Fame in 2002 and the VPA Hall of Fame in 2006.

Burns — who earned the 1998 National Association for Girls and Women in Sport Pathfinder award — won three field hockey championships and two golf titles.

Maureen Capman, Poultney High School

Capman engineered 11 state championships for the Poultney cheer squad and was the 2004 Vermont Cheerleading Coach of the Year. Poultney also won nine Southern Vermont championships during her tenure.

She was inducted into the VPA Hall of Fame in 2006.

Bethany Coursen, Bellows Falls Union High School

Coursen played college softball at Wentworth Institute of Technology because “the school chose not to have a field hockey team,” the longtime coach at Bellows Falls told the Vermont Journal last year.

When Coursen’s daughter asked to play field hockey in 2004 opportunities were scarce so Coursen created a team for her to play. That was the start of Coursen’s coaching career and ultimately Bellows Falls’ dominance in the sport. Still coaching with the Terriers, Coursen eclipsed 200 wins in 2021 and has appeared in seven consecutive championships with five titles over that time.

This fall will mark Coursen’s 20th season as coach of Bellows Falls.

Merlyn Courser, Lyndon/Danville

Courser’s career spans education, coaching and administration with Lyndon Institute. At Lyndon, Courser coached field hockey, softball, basketball, track and field, gymnastics, lacrosse and skiing.

Her lifelong commitments to girls and women’s athletics include: Courser was listed among the Outstanding Young Women in America (1965), served as a timer at the 1980 Olympic Games for skiing, was named the NFICA Track & Field Coach of the Year four times and was inducted into the VPA Hall of Fame in 2008.

Yvonne Frates, Woodstock High School

Frates was inducted into the VPA Hall of Fame in 2012 after 21 seasons coaching Woodstock. Her tenure included five state championships in field hockey and 155 career wins, according to the Rutland Herald.

She was also elected to the Northeast Women’s Hall of Fame in 1992. Woodstock’s field is named after its former coach.

Mona Garone, Oxbow High School

Bradford Academy and Oxbow’s Mona Garone paved a landscape that coaches tried to match years later. In 25 seasons at Oxbow, Garone went 477-70 including a 74-game win streak that lasted from 1984-87.

Garone died of cancer in 1998, but her impact still loomed.

“Mona was the class of the coaching community,” former South Burlington coach Sheila Burleigh told the Free Press in that same year.

The Free Press wrote on October 15, 1998: “She retired in 1996, but, for almost 40 years, Mona, Bradford and basketball were as tight as a 2-3 zone. Her Texas twang and intense passion dominated the game, in Bradford and beyond…”

At the time no other coach had won more state championships (10) than Garone, who was inducted into VPA Hall of Fame in 2003.

Marilyn Gray, Spaulding High School

Gray, a VPA hall of fame inductee in 2011, started field hockey and softball at Spaulding.

Gray said “girls in sports a unique idea. Now young women have role models,” in a quote to The Hardwick Gazette via Newspapers.com. Gray, who started the field hockey program in 1973, coached for 25 years and won four D-I championships, according to the Rutland Herald in 1993.

She submitted her letter of resignation in 1993, citing “lack of support by the Spaulding School Board,” according to the Rutland Herald.

Gail Jette, Middlebury Union High School

Jette formed the Middlebury Union field hockey team and totaled 36 seasons as the coach with a 364-68-71 record. Her Tigers appeared in 16 championships and won eight.

In 1980, Jette told the Free Press that she credited the success of the program to Middlebury’s rich field hockey tradition. In that same year, Middlebury athletic director George Phinney told the Free Press that Jette was that tradition.

“Gail is a promoter and a good one,” Phinney said in 1980. “She’s really gung-ho with the kids and she’s pretty devoted to them. They are to her, too.”

Jette in 1980: “When I got here, the school had the sticks, but there was no program. “It wasn’t long before the girls really started coming out.”

Jette was also the coach of the girls tennis team and was inducted into the VPA Hall of Fame in 2007.

Connie LaRose, Mount Abraham Union High School

March, Barre Auditorium and Connie LaRose — few things go so well together like those three.

The 77-year-old coached Mount Abraham girls basketball for 31 seasons and won five state championships with 16 appearances in the Final Four. With a 486-232 record, she is a member of both the Vermont Basketball Coaches Association and VPA halls of fame.

News of LaRose’s firing in June of 2022 stunned coaches across Vermont.

Related: Mount Abraham girls basketball coach Connie LaRose perplexed over firing

Melba Masse, Essex High School

Masse wore many hats during her 50 years at Essex. A 1954 graduate of Johnson State Teachers College, Masse taught physical education, coached multiple sports and served as athletic director for the Hornets. She started the Essex field hockey team, leading it for 11 years and collecting 96 wins. She tallied over 100 wins in softball and coached basketball for 15 seasons. Her teams won multiple league and state championships.

Masse is a founding member of the Northern Vermont Athletic Conference and the Vermont Student Athletic Leadership Conference. Inducted into the VPA and Vermont Sports halls of fame, Masse also compiled season schedules for the NVAC, earning the title of "Queen of the Master Schedules."

Kelly McClintock, Rice Memorial High School

The physical education teacher who hikes Mount Everest in her spare time, McClintock has guided two sports at Rice to the highest of pinnacles. McClintock, a former Rice and Vermont standout field hockey player, has amassed 120 wins, two state championships in four title-game trips over 11 seasons in charge of the Green Knights' field hockey program. Rice won the D-I field hockey crown in 2019, earning the Free Press coach of the year honor.

In girls lacrosse, McClintock racked up 100 victories in 10 seasons before stepping down for this spring's trip to Everest. She also has a pair of girls lacrosse state crowns in D-II before the program was moved to D-I in 2014.

Bev Osterberg, Stowe High School

Osterberg coached multiple sports with great success at Stowe, notably the Raiders' field hockey program, which she founded in 1967. Under Osterberg, the state powerhouse won more than 500 games, reached 28 title games and captured 16 state championships in her 44 years.

The field hockey team only had one losing season in Osterberg's tenure and strung together a 47-game unbeaten streak. Osterberg made nine straight title games before retiring following the 2011 season. The field hockey field at Stowe bears her name.

A member of the VPA, Vermont Sports, Castleton University and the New England Women's halls of fame, Osterberg also coached the girls basketball team to 346 wins and two state titles in 34 years and led the tennis squad to a pair of crowns and a New England championship over a three-year period.

In 2020, Osterberg died at the age of 82.

Ute Otley, Champlain Valley Union High School

The Indiana native and former Dartmouth College star has turned CVU into Hoops Phi over the past decade-plus. The Redhawks won five consecutive D-I championships and made nine straight title games overall before the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic. During the run, Otley's Redhawks ended a 26-year title drought with their first coronation and won 96 games in a row to establish a modern record for Vermont hoops.

Over 11 years, Otley is 236-15 with seven perfect regular seasons.

Sue Pollender, Mill River Union High School

A member of the VPA, VBCA and New England Basketball halls of fame, Pollender steered Black River from 1969 to 1997. She guided Black River to 325 victories, seven league crowns and a pair of state championships over the 28-year career. According to her VBCA hall of fame bio, Pollender "showed a love for the game and a willingness to teach her players."

Pollender was a history teacher at Mill River, retiring in 2012. She told the Rutland Herald in 2018: “Title IX helped a lot. I was fortunate enough to coach at a time when girls basketball was just evolving."

Jean Robinson, Essex High School

A science teacher, Robinson's teams dissected opponents for 37 years. Robinson collected 623 wins, the most of any coach in Vermont basketball history. Starting her career at Burlington High School, Robinson moved to Essex in 1970 and steered the program to 15 title games, eight championships and a consecutive streak of more than 60 games. Essex pulled off a five-peat from 1994-1998 before Robinson retired following the 2002 season.

She was a charter member of the New England Basketball Hall of Fame, and earned induction into the VPA and Vermont Sports HOFs as well. The Essex court was named after Robinson at the first home game of the 2011-12 campaign. Of her Essex players, 10 went on to play at the D-I level and nine overall captained college teams.

"She really helped to elevate basketball and girls sports in general to where they get a lot more notoriety and public recognition," former Essex athletic director Ed Hockenbury said at Robinson's retirement announcement in 2002.

Heather Scudder, Hartford High School

Scudder, the current Hartford field hockey head coach, is one of Vermont's most decorated coaches. Before her first retirement, Scudder led the Hurricanes for 28 seasons, earning 16 title-game spots and 11 state crowns. Her run accounted for a 305-92-56 record, and her teams made seven straight D-I finals from 1999-05.

Since returning to the helm of the Hurricanes' program in 2017, Scudder has totaled 42 wins in five seasons. Hartford reached the D-II title game this past fall following an 11-3 regular season.

Anjie Soucy, South Burlington High School

Fall and spring, Soucy has built South Burlingon into a powerhouse for field hockey and girls lacrosse.

In field hockey, the Wolves are 252-52-17 with 10 D-I titles in 20 seasons. And in 25 girls lacrosse seasons, the Soucy-led Wolves are 249-109-3 with seven crowns.

A physical education teacher at Frederick H. Tuttle Middle School, Soucy didn't play field hockey or lacrosse when she was in high school in Maine.

"It's about educatingyourself. So much is figuring out kids and how to motivate them and if you can do that, good things can happen," Soucy said in 2017 before the Wolves completed a field hockey three-peat.

Mary Stetson, Mount Abraham Union High School

Stetson is a member of the VPA Hall of Fame, earning induction the same year as her husband, Jeff Stetson.

Mary Stetson, who also shared AD duties with her husband earlier in their careers, delivered Mount Abraham field hockey a D-II four-peat this past fall. Over a 31-year career at the Bristol school, Mary Stetson put up a 279-150-64 with 11 championships and four runner-up finishes. All 11 program titles have been under Stetson.

The Stetsons retired following the close of this school year.

Sarah Strack, Champlain Valley Union High School

Strack has been in charge of the Nordic girls and boys skiing teams at CVU since the 1990s. Over that time, the CVU girls have won seven D-I state crowns, including a three-peat from 2012-14. The Redhawk boys own six titles, highlighted by their three-peat from 2013-15.

Strack is also a longtime science teacher at CVU.

Heather Taft Garrow, EssexHigh School

A decorated, multi-sport athlete at Essex and UVM, Garrow returned to the Hornets as a coach in 1994.

She spent 25 years with the Essex field hockey team, including 14 as head coach. In her time in charge, Essex went 152-46-22 and had a 30-game unbeaten streak that spanned twin titles in 2013 and 2014. Garrow also coached throwers and jumpers on the track and field team for about a decade.

More:A legend in her own right: Essex's Heather Taft Garrow on her career

Garrow is a member of the VPA Hall of Fame for her athletic achievements.

Marci Wisnowski, Middlebury Union High School

Wisnowski presided over a girls lacrosse dynasty at Middlebury during the 1990s and 2000s.

Wisnowski's Tigers captured a D-I four-peat from 1998-01, a run that went nearly unblemished with a 55-1 overall record. Middlebury also captured titles in 2004 and 2006 under Wisnowski. And Wisnowski's coaching tree includes Sarah Dalton Graddock, the Vermont women's lacrosse coach who played for Wisnowski.

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