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Rowan College swimming coach Tony Lisa is known for a sense of humor, but he takes his job seriously. Lisa is now in a position to have a big impact on the sport he loves, having been elected president of the College Swim Coaches Association of America in March. The CSCAA includes all swimming teams from NCAA Division I, II and III, NAIA and junior colleges. Lisa will be president-elect under North Carolina State coach Scott Hammond until September 1998. Then he will take over as president until 2001.

Facts speak for themselves. In 1972, fewer than 300,000 girls in America played high school sports. Now, three million do. Saturday was the 40th anniversary of the passage of Title IX, the federal law that said no person shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation or denied the benefits of any education program or activity receiving federal funds. And the world changed. "It's one of the most popular and successful civil rights laws the country's ever had," said Lisa Maatz, top policy adviser with the American Association of University Women and chair of the National Coalition for Women and Girls in Education (NCWGE)

MALE readers: Boycott the movie "Gracie. " It's nothing but female propaganda. If the girls who play on boys teams think they're so important, make them play in flip-flops, wedges or high heels. Tim Short, Bryn Mawr

SO MUCH for the weaker sex. It's been nearly 30 years since Congress passed that little law mandating equal resources for the sexes in school sports programs. Any school intending to cash a federal check has to pledge to give all the little girls as great an opportunity to get sweaty and spit in front of crowds as all the little boys. And now, decades after Title IX was introduced, women truly are coming even with men. A new study explains that we now have a crop of female university athletes who are just as dumb and academically lazy as their male counterparts.

By Linda J. Wharton When I played basketball and field hockey in high school in the early 1970s, sports opportunities for girls were severely limited. Nationally, one in 27 girls played high school sports, accounting for a disappointingly small percentage of high school athletes. Athletic scholarships for girls were virtually nonexistent. The equipment was make-do. Those of us who insisted on playing sports were regarded as tomboys. From fewer than 300,000 girls in 1971, female participation in competitive high school sports has ballooned to nearly three million.

For today's young people, the world before Title IX is as hard to imagine as a two-dribble limit in girls basketball. That's how the game was played back then - and before Title IX became law in 1972, the idea that athletic opportunities for girls and boys should be equal was far-fetched at best. Equal opportunity in college academics seemed a fantasy as well. This week marked the 25th anniversary of Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972, which forbids gender discrimination in programs receiving federal money.

Teachers and coaches often are in the best position to spot sex discrimination in schools. They should be able to object to injustices without fear of punishment. The U.S. Supreme Court this week properly gave them whistle-blower-like protection if their complaints are turned against them. The case involved a Birmingham, Ala., high school basketball coach, who pointed out the disparities in equipment, funding and practice conditions between his girls' team and the boys' squad.

Apparently striving to tamp down the debate over Title IX, U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige said yesterday that he will not even look at most of the more controversial recommendations sent to him yesterday by his Commission on Opportunity in Athletics. Paige said his department "intends to move forward only on those recommendations" reached unanimously without a formal vote. That serves to eliminate virtually all of the specific suggestions that had generated strife within the commission and had caused advocates to anticipate significant changes in the way the landmark 30-year-old statute is interpreted and enforced.

Have you heard about the great program linked with less teenage pregnancy, higher high school graduation rates, the avoidance of abusive relationships and success later in life? It's called women's sports. Americans have long seen organized sports as a good thing for boys and young men. Should we be surprised that they're good for girls and young women? That's why the battle over Title IX, requiring parity between men's and women's athletics at educational institutions, is important.

The president of the NCAA said yesterday that he opposes any changes to Title IX, the gender-equality law that enhanced women's participation in sports. Myles Brand endorsed the three-decade-old law during a National Press Club luncheon shortly after expressing the same views to Education Secretary Rod Paige, who is considering changes to Title IX proposed by an advisory committee appointed by the Bush administration. "Title IX is not broken, and it does not need to be fixed," Brand said.

'I'M GONNA pass out. " Don't let the words fool you; the girl may have been winded, but she spoke with a smile. Surrounded by Temple's women's rowing team, she had just competed in her first 100-meter race on a rowing machine. And she couldn't have been more excited. The North Philadelphia middle school student was one of roughly 50 participants Monday at Temple's celebration of National Girls and Women in Sports Day. The event brought young girls from local middle schools to Temple's Student Pavilion to hang out with some of the university's female athletes and try their hand at everything from shot put to fencing.

WASHINGTON - Breaking new ground, the U.S. Education Department is telling schools they must include students with disabilities in sports programs or provide equal alternative options. The directive, reminiscent of the Title IX expansion of athletic opportunities for women, could bring sweeping changes to school budgets and locker rooms for years to come. Schools would be required to make "reasonable modifications" for students with disabilities or create parallel athletic programs that have comparable standing to mainstream programs.

They say this is the Year of the Woman. Of course they're right. Ever since we got the vote, we've been hell-bent-for-leather. By the way, we got the vote 92 years ago. Or Years-of-the-Woman ago. To prove that the Year of the Woman is here, they point out that Augusta National Golf Club just allowed two women to join its membership, after 80 years of admitting only men. One woman, who led a protest at the club in 2003, said last week,...

LONDON - With apologies to Olympic purists, that tacky and nationalistic medal count really is worth taking a look at. It may get too much attention in a jingoistic, we're No. 1 sense, but it still matters. It matters because of the stories it tells about the state of the world's competitive balance in sports and, by extension, the state of the world itself. The United States finished the London Games on top of the medal standings, with 46 gold medals, 29 silver, and 29 bronze.

Mike Harrigan   After 40 years, it's time for some changes to Title IX and its role in amateur sports.   When President Richard M. Nixon signed the amendments to the Higher Education Act on June 23, 1972, its 37 words — "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 educational program or activity receiving...

Facts speak for themselves. In 1972, fewer than 300,000 girls in America played high school sports. Now, three million do. Saturday was the 40th anniversary of the passage of Title IX, the federal law that said no person shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation or denied the benefits of any education program or activity receiving federal funds. And the world changed. "It's one of the most popular and successful civil rights laws the country's ever had," said Lisa Maatz, top policy adviser with the American Association of University Women and chair of the National Coalition for Women and Girls in Education (NCWGE)

The thought never even crossed Carli Lloyd's mind. She would play sports, lots of them. And the opportunities? They'd always be there for her to fulfill her potential. Growing up it was never a question for Lloyd whether she would play sports. The Delran native, 29, never questioned her opportunity or access to athletics; the fact that they would both be there was just assumed. Born a decade after the passage of Title IX, Lloyd started playing a variety of sports at a young age, unaware of the legislation that made it possible for her to do so. It wasn't until college when she started to understand the law. "It never crossed my mind that there would have been a time when females couldn't play sports," said Lloyd, starting center-midfielder for the U.S. women's soccer team.

To put the 40th anniversary of Title IX in proper context, turn off the television. Forget Final Fours or tailgating at college football games. Not to get sacrilegious, but forget about seeing games at the Palestra. We live in the only country where college sports is more about watching than playing. No complaints. It's also the only country where the media cover college sports so extensively. Title IX, which turns 40 on Saturday, isn't about the watching, just the playing.

With the 40th anniversary of Title IX coming Saturday, the Daily News asked legendary Immaculata College star and women's basketball Hall of Famer Theresa Grentz to provide a guest column about her experiences. Grentz was a three-time All-American on the Mighty Macs' national championship teams in the early 1970s. She would later coach at Saint Joseph's, Rutgers and Illinois, winning 671 games and only having two losing seasons in her 32 years as a college coach. Grentz coached Team USA to a bronze medal at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona and coached the 1990 Goodwill Games and World Championship teams.