And Then There Were Girls' Sports

Beverly Griffin spent 3-years editing together a scrapbook of the history of girls sports development at Salmon River Central School. Griffin was one of the main supporters of bringing organized girls sports into the school system back in the 1960’s and 1970’s when Title IX was passed to stop discrimination in the schools.

The start of recording the history of girls’ sports at Salmon River began with postings in the paper asking for information and pictures. Slowly, Griffin began to get a response from alumni of the school who had kept photos and newspaper clippings. Unfortunately, prior to 1999 there were no records kept of the sports teams. At the end of each season records were thrown out, so information needed was gathered by tracking down alumni from across the country.

“Everything just all came together. I used to think to myself, ‘Why am I doing this?’” said Griffin. “It became an obsession and I remembered that my parents used to tell me that if you are going to start something, you finish it.”

Collecting the information was only part of the task at hand; finding funding to publish the 570 pages was another hurdle that had to be overcome. The Salmon River alumni and surrounding community came together to support this project. The Salmon River Athletic Hall of Fame committee and North Franklin Sports program both collected donations to help with the expense of producing the book. Families also contributed small donations here and there to help cover the cost – a full list of sponsors for this book is listed in the back of the book.

Establishing Girls Sports in the North Country

When Griffin first moved back to the North Country there were no girls sports – from Clinton, Essex, St. Lawrence and Franklin counties there were no programs established in any of the local schools. Although Title IX had been passed but no one had made any move to begin offering girls the chance to play sports at school. The main reason for that was due to the cost it would take to pay for two teams in each sport – the equipment, coaching, travel, uniforms and extra practice space would be costly to have. But after attending many all-men meetings of North Country athletics the decision was made to begin with girls sports at Salmon River.

The greatest part about Griffin’s book is the historical notations of the struggles to begin girls’ sports in the schools. It was truly a team effort of volunteers who offered their time without pay to coach the fledgling teams. The photos from those first years of sports depict the girls players wearing their gym uniforms because they did not have the funding in place to buy appropriate jerseys for the girls. The first girls’ team to have uniforms was the soccer team who were happy to recycle the old football uniforms. The photos of the girls’ soccer players obviously wearing men’s football jerseys is a sobering sight to see when a century later they are dominating Section X.

“When our track team went to meets the girls all had to pay $2 to ride the bus, except for the Native players who had theirs paid for through a grant,” recalls Griffin. “The Native players didn’t even hesitate as they said that everyone will pay $1 and they refused to get on the bus until everyone paid evenly. It was those actions that brought the teams closer together.”

That particular team had 10 girls qualify for the State meet in Buffalo with the Johnson O’Malley Program providing a bus for them to travel in; Brewer’s Ford in Fort Covington paid for the gas; and parents and the team held fundraisers to cover the hotel stay. This was another great example of a community coming together to support their athletes goals of aspiring to greatness. That 1978 Track & Field Team is the only team in Salmon River History to bring home the Section X NAC Championship as of last year.

And Now There Are Girls’ Sports

Girls’ sports at Salmon River has truly come full circle, in the book you can track the mother-daughter athletes from one generation to the next. Cindy Cook and her daughter Ciera Jacobs; Doreen (Bero) Mitchell and her daughters Krissy and Rhonda Mitchell; Clarissa Terrance and her daughter Karyss Terrance; and Brenda Herne and her daughter Jaylene Johnson are all great examples of that.

Beyond carrying on a legacy of supreme athleticism, some of those first female athletes have paid tribute to their coaches by also deciding to step up and take the helm. 2010/2011 Section X Coach of the Year for Girls’ Basketball Karen Francis, who had studied under then Head Coach Dick McClean, now uses that strong foundation to build the girls basketball program at Salmon River. Francis’ daughter Erica also played for the team last year. Another notable player from Coach McClean’s time was Jocelyn (Furnia) Kelly whose daughters Abby and Anna are both players for the current Salmon River girls’ basketball team. Jocelyn Kelly is the Assistant Coach for the team, and both Kelly and Francis had been members of the 1,000 points club at Salmon River.

“It was very nostalgic to go through everything and see how things have progressed,” said Griffin. “I do get worried about a couple of teams who really need the numbers.”

The Indoor Track had a 20-year lapse after it folded in 1986 but the team was revived in 2006. It has been a fight to maintain with the lack of practice space with all of the renovations happening.

Volleyball is another area that has developed into a very strong program this year with the Salmon River Girls team making it to the Semi-Finals in the State Playoffs and taking the overall Section X Title. Volleyball is actually a fairly new sport to Salmon River with the first season being 1998-1999. The Lady Shamrocks took the North Country by storm with a first place showing in Section X in their inaugural year.

“The first teams didn’t feel like pioneers,” said Griffin. “But they were.”

These are just a few of the many areas that Griffin included in the book “And Then There Were Girls’ Sports 1964-2010.” To order one of these books you can place an order with Doreen Mitchell at Akwesasne Sports or with Patti Herne at the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe. You can also email splitrailantiques@verizon.net to place an order – the book costs $40.00 each.