Lamont Weaver

Hope Solo

US women’s soccer goalie Hope Solo’s verbal confession of her frustration from being benched so old-timer Briana Scurry could relieve her glory days, resulting in a 4-0 loss to Brazil, was both entertaining and shocking.

It was entertaining in the fact that she was right and she had the nerve to voice her opinion and shocking because it was actually a woman athlete getting major coverage.

Face it – sports media like ESPN never give women’s sports the time of day.

I respect and enjoy watching women’s sports, but while I can’t say that I actually watch and follow the women’s professional leagues, I can say it’s not from a lack of respect or basis of women playing sports. It’s because of the fact that professional women’s leagues are the “Tito Jackson” of the sports world. Michael Jackson is men’s sports with the limelight and respect, and Tito is far in the background.

While I feel that men’s sports will always be more popular, I feel that women’s sports could be more popular and respected if media sources like ESPN would just give more attention to them.

Where are the entertaining weekly ESPN shows that cover the WNBA? Why is it that the shows aren’t showing after-game wrap-up sessions where Charles Barkley is talking about what just happened in the Monarchs game?

I tuned in to ESPN two weeks ago and saw that the Phoenix Mercury had just won the championship. I didn’t even know the WNBA playoffs were still on, and for a professional championship series, there wasn’t even a five-minute section of SportsCenter to recap it.

ESPN spends most of its 24-hour programming schedule on continuous recaps of the same events. Why can’t shows can’t include more women’s stories? The soccer story was great, but come on. Before the Hope incident and USA lost, how much publicity was it getting? Not much.

Andrew Eggers

Natalie Gulbis

Natalie Gulbis is not the Anna Kournikova of women’s sports. Gulbis is actually good at what she does.

Other than being extremely good looking, Gulbis, a Sacramento native, plays golf on the Ladies Professional Golf Tour. She recently won her first career professional title, the 2007 Evian Masters.

For all you golfers, imagine playing 18 holes alongside a beautiful blonde who can drive the ball farther than you. She would be able to show you a thing or two.

I have no problem with women’s golf, but I remember the days when all the women’s golfers seemed to be unattractive and overweight. Gulbis is so hot she has her own calendar that makes men drool.

The 24-year-old has her own reality show on the Golf Channel which details her everyday life being the hottest golfer ever. When I watched the show, she seemed to be a very humble and a down-to-earth type of girl.

She looked amazing when she posed in her bikini in “For Him Magazine,” better known by its readers as “FHM.” I almost forgot she was a golfer; for a second there I thought she was a Playboy Playmate or something. She even has her own monthly column in “FHM.”

She was also in the 2007 Tiger Woods PGA Tour video game by EA Sports, and I have to say she still looks amazing as a digital character.

You might have seen her in a local car dealership commercial too.

I’m hoping that one day I will show up to the golf course to play and will be paired with her. I would love to play a skins game with Gulbis, but she might have to spot me a couple strokes.

Galen Kusic

Michelle Wie

A woman athlete who has always been an inspiration to me is Michelle Wie. At 17, she is still too young to become a professional on the LPGA tour, but has already finished in the top 10 seven times in LPGA majors.

At the age of 13, Wie could drive the ball 300 yards. That is impressive for any 13-year-old. The fact that she has played in several men’s PGA tournaments and almost made the cut is unbelievable in itself.

Wie is a pioneer for women’s golf. She is feared even by the most seasoned golfers on the circuit, and she has the talent and ability in time to make greats such as Annika Sorenstam, Laura Davies and Juli Inkster disappear as if they never played the game. She is that good and will only continue to get better as long as all of the media hype doesn’t get to her.

As of late, other women’s golfers like Natalie Gulbis, Paula Creamer and Morgan Pressel have been doing well to increase the popularity of the sport. That said, the field has a different style, as long trousers and unattractive sweaters are no longer the look on the course. Instead, it is short skirts and tight fitting shirts.

The LPGA also has a group of various international players who are extremely good. The influx of South Korean players to the LPGA has been widespread, and success stories like Mi Hyun Kim, Seon-Hwa Lee, Jee Young Lee, Jeon Jang and the already well-known Se Ri Pak are all in the top 13 on the money list this year; each earning over $750,000.

I think it’s great to have all of these young golfers coming from abroad to play over here. Only five of those top 13 players on the money list are American-born, which truly shows the diversity that women’s golf has adopted. The current money leader, Lorena Ochoa, has made over $2 million this season. She is from Mexico and attended the University of Arizona.

I think women’s golf is a women’s sport that anyone can watch – that is if you like golf. Sometimes I actually prefer to watch women’s golf to men’s because they make great shots all the time, and look better doing it!

For other sports, I think the difference in popularity is that it involves running and more physical strength-type attributes. You don’t see women dunking very often in the WNBA, or posting the same times as men in track and field. However in golf, the playing field is more level, and eventually I think women will play co-ed with men.

Golf can be one of the most progressive sports today because it has the ability to really go across gender and race lines and make things equal for everyone. If this happens, I’m sure other sports will eventually follow in the future.

Fernando Gallo Lack of fans

Women’s sports are kind of like soccer in America: they’ll always be around, but they’ll never be extremely popular. Most women are all about women’s rights and equal treatment and whatnot, so they want to have women’s leagues like the WNBA and a female World Cup team.

The problem is, women are not really supporting those teams. It doesn’t matter if it’s men, women or the male cast of “Grey’s Anatomy” who are playing; women are just less likely to watch sports. That’s just bad news for female athletes out there, because the only way most men will watch their games regularly is if there’s eye candy for them to look at instead of the scoreboard. Do you think men like watching hotties, such as golfer Natalie Gulbis or tennis star Maria Sharapova, for their playing styles? I mean I do, but you know how some other guys are…

So, what can be done to help women’s sports actually get some recognition in the media and in our living rooms? The solution is very simple: women have got to start acting more like men (gasp). Now before I get tons of hate mail from all the ladies out there, allow me to clarify. Don’t emulate men in terms of how you dress or how your table manners are (because we have the burping covered, thank you), but support your women’s teams like we support our men’s teams.

I encourage all you women to go to a women’s game wearing a jersey you paid too much for, drink a bunch of beers and then heckle the other team’s fans like so many men do. And if you really want to go the whole nine yards, go shirtless and paint your torso in the team’s colors. Not only will it show your team spirit, but it will be one hell of a conversation starter.

Whether or not you risk arrest in support of a team or just show up and clap politely is irrelevant. All that matters is that you’re there. An NFL team can fill up a 70,000 seat stadium on a regular basis, so I want to see some WNBA arenas filled to capacity next season. Then maybe we’ll actually be able to find that WNBA game on TV.

Victor Nieto Sex sells

In almost every aspect of popular culture, more precisely sports, there is one defining demographic that is responsible for driving up the revenue in nearly all sports entertainment – the coveted 18 to 45-year-old males.

For this reason, the popularity of women’s sports can only go as far as the arbiter’s palette, and unfortunately for most women’s sports, the arbiter has already a preconceived notion of what it deems attractive.

Sex sells, and unfortunately for the WNBA, women’s softball and this year’s crop of the Team USA world cup soccer (we hardly knew you), the sex appeal just isn’t prevalent enough for the average viewer, which is a shame because there are some great, competitive athletes out there who have gained notoriety by way of being really good.

Mia Hamm did a good job at this before she was upstaged by Brandi Chastain celebrating her game-winning goal kick in the 1999 world cup by taking off her jersey. Amanda Beard upstaged her Olympic dominance in Athens by recently appearing nude in a summer edition of Playboy.

And who the heck is this Natalie Gulbis? Should I care or just sit back and admire her Sactown Magazine spread where she stands in front of a pool in daisy-dukes, displaying her (cough) long irons.

I can tell you that she is attractive, young and may play professional golf or be a cast member from “Laguna Beach,” but what’s the difference? She has my attention – and not because of her personality.

Until there’s a woman with a 43-inch vertical leap who can drop 42 every night or plow over a 6-foot-3, 230-pound beast of a man like Troy Polamalu, the pure essence of women’s competition will never be a focal point in the mainstream media because the targeted demographic revenue just isn’t there.

Popular culture will always have its certain fixations, so if the alpha male should go by the 50 Cent philosophy of “get rich or die trying,” maybe the woman athlete should adopt the slogan “bare it all and smile.”

Simply put, the future of woman sports will be on their answer to this question: To expose or not to expose . . .

The State Hornet staff can be reached at [email protected].