Lehigh celebrates 50 years of women’s athletics

In 1973, swimming and field hockey became the first two women’s sports programs at Lehigh University. Shortly after, in 1974, the women’s basketball, volleyball and tennis programs followed. Today, Lehigh has 13 varsity women’s athletics programs that have brought home 37 conference championships since joining the Patriot League in 1986. 

Sue Troyan, Lehigh’s deputy director of athletics, coached women’s softball and basketball simultaneously for 35 years before moving into the athletics administration position in the summer of 2022. Throughout her tenure, Troyan has seen the growth of Lehigh women’s sports first-hand.

“The support of the programs, the financial support in terms of coaches, staffing, recruiting abilities, all of those have grown significantly to make our women’s sports pretty competitive across the board,” Troyan said.

When Troyan first started coaching in 1991, there were only two full-time head coaches for women’s sports. Now, there are 13 full-time head coaches for all 13 programs. She accredits long-time Dean of Athletics and Lehigh alumnus, Joe Sterrett, for his work to shrink the discrepancy between the men’s and women’s athletic programs.

“I feel good about the progress that we’ve made. I feel like we’re providing the women who are here with a challenging, competitive and meaningful experience,” Sterrett said. “If there’s an aspect of it that’s been at times frustrating or disappointing it’s been that it’s taken this long for that to happen.”

With more women becoming involved in athletics, it is becoming increasingly competitive to play at the highest levels. 

Gina Lewandowski, the women’s soccer associate head coach, played at Lehigh and professionally before coming back to coach at her alma mater. She acknowledges the new challenges regarding the scarce resources that come with this growing popularity.

“We need to provide resources to help individuals, especially women, be the best versions of themselves on the field, but off the field as well, and take a more holistic approach to sports performance,” Lewandowski said. “If we don’t, then they can’t ultimately succeed and be the best they can be on the field.”

Sterrett recalled how his mother had few to no athletic opportunities, and now his grandchildren have many. However, he still believes there is work to be done on a larger scale. 

“One of the measures of true acceptance is the willingness of society to invest in it,” Sterrett said. “I think the investment on the part of society in women’s sports, professional, collegiate and youth still lags a bit behind men’s sports. I would love to see more individual investment in women’s programs in our setting.”

Troyan reiterated Sterrett’s point about investing in women’s sports. 

She said many of the resources necessary to take each program to the next level come from financial assets including staffing, coaching and scholarships.

The university has a legal responsibility to have 3-5% of the total enrollment in athletics, she said. With the increasing percentage of women at Lehigh, Troyan acknowledges the potential need for an additional women’s program and the hurdles that come with trying to meet that threshold.

“We would love to add women’s wrestling, but to do so, we’re going to have to find the resources to hire a coach, have scholarships for the program and have a budget where they can travel and compete competitively,” Troyan said.

Lewandowski remains appreciative of the experience she has had returning to Lehigh as a coach through seeing the passionate drive of her athletes. 

“It’s been really fun working with the girls and seeing their engagement and their energy, motivation and drive,” Lewandowski said. “It’s been rewarding seeing as they grow to be who they want to be and learn more about themselves as a team and a program.”