History, the kind that matters, will be made Saturday by a nervous, perfectly nice incoming knob at the Citadel. That’s what they call freshmen at the South Carolina military school–a knob, which is how their heads usually look after the customary trimming-shears welcome.
Mandy Garcia won’t get a buzz cut. Instead, the first female scholarship athlete at the Citadel will get the royal treatment.
After making a fool of itself in recent years, the toy soldier school is trying something different, like making amends. During its first 153 years of existence, the Citadel thought a woman’s place was in the kitchen, or better yet, on a cadet’s arm at the Ring Hop in October. Never mind that West Point and the other service academies had accepted women years earlier, the Citadel was determined to keep America safe from Communists and curling irons.
Shannon Faulkner and the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals changed all that in 1995. Though she only lasted two weeks at the Citadel, Faulkner became the patron saint of aspiring female cadets. One small step for Faulkner, one giant step for the women who followed her past the gates of the Charleston school.
Last fall, four female cadets took the Nestea plunge, with two of them dropping out at Christmas break. The other two made it and return for their sophomore years.
Now comes Garcia, an 18-year-old cross-country runner who arrives on campus Saturday with her parents and an opportunity to do what many Citadel alumni considered unthinkable, if not impossible, a few years ago. It won’t be easy, but at least she won’t be reduced to a puddle of raw nerves and tears, as Faulkner was during the hazing period known as Cadre.
“That’s when the knobs learn how to salute, how to wear a uniform, learn what they can and can’t do,” said Jody Huddleston, the Citadel’s track and cross-country coach. “They’re yelled at, but we kind of don’t want to use the word `hazing’ anymore.”
The Citadel isn’t turning soft, just pragmatic. Rather than fight the inevitable, as Virginia Military Institute did, the Citadel decided it was time to join the rest of the 20th Century. So here it is, waiting with open arms (sort of) for Garcia to become a living history lesson.
None of this happened by accident. Embarrassed by the fallout from Faulkner’s abbreviated but much-publicized stay, the Citadel began taking some baby steps toward a solution. But the push to recruit female athletes came only in the last six months, when the school’s new president and new commandant issued a military ultimatum: Advance, advance, advance.
Huddleston, who has been at the Citadel for 12 years, knows an order when he sees one. So he sent out questionnaires to about 30 female Citadel applicants, asking each one if she had any interest in running for, not from, the Citadel. He got one reply.
“Sometimes stereotypes are hard to break,” Huddleston said.
Garcia was captain of the cheerleading squad at 71st High School in Fayetteville, N.C. She was the captain of the softball team. She was a state qualifier in cross-country during her junior and senior years. In other words, she was just what the Citadel was looking for.
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A grand total of 18 women, their Citadel deposit fees paid in full, are expected to report to school Saturday. Garcia will be the only one with a partial athletic scholarship, with her own locker room facilities, with her own hotel room when the Citadel team goes on the road.
“She’ll have some space her first year here,” Huddleston said.
But she won’t have pressure, at least not if Huddleston has anything to do with it. Garcia, who will also run on the indoor and outdoor track teams, won’t compete in every meet. She won’t be the Citadel’s women’s “team,” but instead will run as an individual competitor.
Unlike Faulkner, Garcia has an actual chance to survive and succeed at the place that time almost forgot. That’s because there are signs, meaningful ones, that the Citadel is separating parts of its past from its future.
Not long ago, at the first-ever sensitivity training seminar on the Citadel campus, the entire assembled corps was asked if it approved of the new official school philosophy regarding women cadets. A show of hands was requested.
There were more than hands waved. There was cheering. Someone should have sent a videotape to Faulkner.
“The whole mentality has shifted 180 degrees,” Huddleston said. “I think this is going to be a very good year for the Citadel.”
Garcia is a nice start.
Already a Citadel uniform has been ordered for her. Only one thing is missing, not that Huddleston needs any reminders.
“We’re doing some recruiting,” Huddleston promised. “We’ll have some teammates for her next year.”