Dec 3, 2017 7 min read

Penny Starkey always wanted to dive into female athletics.

She would stand on the pool deck that was home to the Abington Senior High School swimming team and think about breaking the records for girls set in 1961.

Even before Title IX, Starkey became took advantage of opportunities in sports for girls and women in the late 1960s at her Philadelphia area school, and at the University of Pittsburgh for two-and-a-half seasons, before being dry-docked with severe ear infections.

So it was a “shock” to her that when she was hired as a physical education teacher in the Washington School District in 1972 that the only two activities for females were cheerleading and majorettes.

“It was beyond my comprehension to be employed by a school that had nothing for girls in sports,” said Starkey, who taught and coached at Washington High School for 36 years before retiring in 2009.

“No sports for girls, I was like, ‘What?’ I was used to having opportunities. We had 920 graduates at Abington. My feeling was girls should have something offered to them in sports and shouldn’t just have to be a cheerleader or a majorette.”

A staff meeting, led by the late Roy Seibert – then principal at Washington – offered the opportunity for Starkey to do something about the issue.

“Title IX had kicked in and he asked if anyone was interested in coaching girls sports,” Starkey recalled. “Adele Smith (another teacher at the school) and I raised our hands.

“That was the beginning of my coaching career.”

In the spring of 1974, Starkey, along with Smith, began the first girls track team at Washington.

More than 100 girls came out for the team.

“Of course, they didn’t all stick with it, but I think it was evident how hungry girls were to be in the athletic arena,” Starkey said.

The following fall, Starkey initiated volleyball and basketball teams. She coached volleyball and track for five years, until she got married and had a daughter. She coached basketball for two years before turning the program over to the late Jim Shoaf.

“I turned the reins over to coaches who knew more than me,” Starkey said. “I had two outstanding girls who needed more than I could give them, Lisa Main – who had one of the most pure jump shots, male or female, I had seen in my 30-odd years of being involved in interscholastic sports, and Julie Gaul.”

Starkey, who moved to Minnesota this past summer with her husband, Ted, to be close to her daughter, Julie, and grandchildren, said that so many girls signing up for track was a clear sign the females wanted the opportunity.

“Track is not the easiest sport,” she said. “That number spoke volumes.”

It took Starkey three seasons to be given a locker room for her team in the Wash High Stadium field house. The boys were using both – one for varsity and one for the junior high team.

“The girls used the concession stands and the bathrooms under the stands, which were not in the best shape. In fact, they were horrendous, particularly after standing idle all winter,” she recalled.

Once she and Smith gained teaching tenure, they approached the school board about the situation.

“The National Organization for Women was there and spoke on our behalf,” Starkey said. “I know some of the board (members) weren’t happy, but because of Title IX they had no choice but to grant our request. That was a huge deal. We had broken through.

“It really wasn’t much of a fight. At least we had shelter, had somewhere to go to the bathroom and a water fountain. We were so thrilled and the program stayed strong through the years.”

Starkey resumed coaching volleyball in the fall of 1985, a career that saw her teams become a force in section and WPIAL play. She finished with a 168-56 record, a .750 winning percentage. Her teams won 10 section championships in 19 seasons.

One of her best decisions was to hire Gaul, who is now the volleyball coach at Carlow College, as an assistant for the Little Prexies.

Gaul, a member of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame, Washington-Greene Chapter, is one of a growing list of accomplished and outstanding female athletes from Washington.

“Julie made a huge difference in our program,” Starkey said. “We coached together for 11 years, when we both decided to retire. We had a great run.”

Starkey was part of a unique coaching staff at Washington that featured a handful of longtime, successful coaches who also taught at the school. She, along with Ron Faust (boys basketball), Guy Montecalvo (football), Bob Peton (baseball) and Stan Mousetis and Bill Solominsky (wrestling) gave the Little Prexies’ athletic programs stability and excellence over three decades.

The man responsible for nearly every one of those coaches being hired by the school board was former athletic director Bob Wagner.

“Penny was very aggressive and determined,” Wagner said. “She believed in the female athletes at Wash High and she developed them and that developed the programs.

“I was also very pleased with her effort. She put in a lot of time in every one of those programs. Being a physical education teacher at the school, she came in contact with them on a daily basis. She identified their strengths and weaknesses and worked on them for their own development.

“She did a fantastic job for Wash High and the school district,” he continued. “She was an outstanding individual, very cooperative. I enjoyed working with her very much and admired her work ethic.”

In 1974, the girls track team finished as WPIAL runner-up to Trinity when the team championship was determined at the WPIAL Individual Championships. At that time, there was just one classification in track.

Starkey was an assistant coach to the late Don Clendaniel in track and field and was head girls coach under Montecalvo, track coordinator, from 2000-2003 and ended her career in 2004 as track coordinator.

Starkey also coached tennis for one year (1984) to help save the program, which was going to be discontinued.

“I just wanted to give the girls a chance,” Starkey said. “We had great kids.”

Starkey also credits the men she worked with at Washington for providing help and support.

“That group of male coaches, for that length of time, to me, was the Wash High mystique,” she said. “How important was it for Guy, Ron and Bob to be in the school with the kids day-in and day-out? They were super supportive of me and our programs and with one another. It was just such a unique and fabulous atmosphere to be part of. They were always fantastic with me. I don’t know if that kind of situation or longevity could happen anymore.”

Starkey spends her days now watching her two grandchildren in Minneapolis and following the Pittsburgh Steelers. She also has two grandchildren in Fort Worth, Texas.

“We wanted to be around our family and grandchildren,” she said. “We like spending time with all of them. I miss hearing the Steelers stories every day and I am still a Little Prexies diehard.”

All these years later, Starkey looks at the success of females at Washington and just relishes the accomplishments and success-es and remembers the humble beginnings.

“Western Pennsylvania was behind in girls sports in the early 1970s,” she said. “And I am including Pitt, my first year there swimming was a club sport. It was baffling.

“I think my biggest legacy was the starting of the girls sports program in 1974. I loved coaching, and enjoyed helping so many fine young women, many of whom have gone on to be doctors, lawyers, teachers and coaches themselves. And I am proud of that more than anything.”