Boys' coach: Woman with winning ways

Yet even with more than 150 career wins and now two state championships, she has trouble getting recognized, even in front of her own bench.

"There are always the referees that go up to my male assistant coach, thinking they're the head coach, thinking I'm just some parent or trainer or something," Walters said. "It happens a lot in Phoenix. It even happened (two weeks ago) at the state (final)."

The 44-year-old Walters was at the helm on Feb. 10 when the Falcons beat city rival Sabino 2-0 for the Class 4A-I state championship, five years to the day after they won their first crown in 2001.

She has led the Falcons boys program to each of its 153 all-time wins .

Very few of those victories have passed without her receiving some reminder that she is a coaching rarity: a woman in charge of a boys team.

"Sometimes I can't help let it register because it gets thrown in my face," she said. "But (people) don't stop to think it happens all the time in the reverse, and we never think about it."

Just two in the state

Walters and Rincon/University's Roxanne Taylor are believed to be the only women in the state coaching a boys' team sport at the Class 4A or 5A level. No official Arizona Interscholastics Association records are available to confirm that.

But it wasn't as if Walters set out to be a pioneer. Out of necessity she coached boys and girls soccer, as well as baseball and softball, at Orange Grove Middle School. And when Foothills was about to open in the early 1990s she was asked to apply for both the boys and girls soccer jobs.

"They offered me the boys job, so I took it and never really wondered about it," she said.

The early years, though tough in terms of on-field performance, were not hard from the standpoint of relating to the players, because Walters had coached many of them in middle school.

"I was a known entity," she said.

Over the years she has had issues with individual players or parents who were at first unsure about her being the coach, but that quickly goes away.

Senior Phil Maben, a four-year varsity player for the Falcons, said new players often come into the program thinking Walters might be a bit of a pushover as a coach because she is female.

That doesn't last.

"She is incredibly intimidating," Maben said. "She can be as mean as any other coach. She makes you work as hard as anyone else. At first you think it might be kind of weird that she's a woman, but she's one of the best coaches I've ever had."

Rules are stringent

To show who is boss as well as teach her players valuable life lessons, Walters has always had a stringent set of rules for on- and off-field conduct. This season, that has led to numerous suspensions and dismissals from the team.

"The boys that I suspended, they clearly understand that their actions had a consequence for everybody," Walters said. "We as a whole team suffered. We had a lot of suspensions. That's part of the deal."

Added Falcons girls coach Charlie Kendrick, a former boys team assistant for Walters: "She definitely cares about her kids. They know that, and they play (hard) for her. Every kid you talk to that comes from her program will tell you they love her."

Foothills athletic director Terry Lantz came to the school two years ago from Omaha. Like anyone, he was at first surprised to see a woman running a boys team, but after watching Walters at work he knew the gender issue was essentially a non-issue.

"Certainly you don't have that kind of success if they're not following that leader," Lantz said. "She can handle the male high school personality."

"A whole different animal"

The emotional makeup of boys was what Marie Daranyi noticed most during the three years she coached boys volleyball at Foothills, 1998-2000.

"It was an adjustment, because they're just a whole different animal," said Daranyi, who still coaches girls volleyball at the school. "Their brains work differently. You can be a lot more direct. You need to phrase your feedback differently with girls."

Said Walters: "Anybody who's coached boys learns how they operate, just like someone who coaches girls learns how they are. Even each boys team is different from the previous because of their individual personalities."

While being a woman is no longer as much of an issue as earlier in her career, Walters still must handle criticism for being a lesbian.

Outed two months into her first year as a teacher in 1985, Walters' sexuality has at times been a subject on the Web site Underground Soccer, an uncensored soccer forum where people can make anonymous posts.

"For me, it's just kind of a part of who I am," Walters said. "I don't try to hide it, and I don't feel there's a reason to hide it. If that's where they feel they want to go, that's their own set of issues."

Walters says she feels blessed to have had amazing parental support over the years, though she knows her sexual orientation can be a concern for some.

"It's an interesting situation for parents, because a lot of them don't always know right away but probably find out at some point," she said. "And for some — there's a lot of homophobia in this community — it puts them in an interesting dichotomy. On one hand they might like me as a coach, but then they wonder, 'Is that a good model for my son?' "

Maben, the varsity player, said their coach's personal life is not a regular topic of conversation among the players.

"No one who knows the game would think that changes who she is as a coach," he said.

Challenge Ropes creator

The development of a powerhouse boys soccer program is not Walters' only achievement at Foothills. She also created the school's Challenge Ropes program, a series of confidence- and trust-building classes that have become some of the most popular physical education classes at Foothills.

"A lot of athletes at the school take it," said Walters, who because of the popularity of her program is the only one dealing with those classes. "They learn about leadership, but they also learn about 'followership,' which is important. You can't have 20 leaders on a (team)."

Wanted: sports and rec notes

Attention readers: We are looking for sports and rec notes from your area. To submit an item, contact Brian J. Pedersen at 434-4079 or bjp@azstarnet.com.