Training Rules

Training Rules: No Drinking, No Drugs, No Lesbians. Dirs. Dee Mosbacher and Fawn Yacker. Wolf Video, 2010. DVD. 61 min.

“No drinking. No drugs. No lesbians.” These three “training rules” defined coach Rene Portland’s Penn State women’s basketball program. Not until a lawsuit brought by a former player did the Penn State administration even feign addressing Portland’s homophobic and discriminatory behavior.

Narrated by long distance swimmer Diana Nyad, Training Rules is a moving documentary providing interviews with women who were coached and dismissed by Portland during her 27 year tenure at Penn State (1980-2007). Many of these women lost their scholarships, their dreams, and part of their lives while the campus administration and the NCAA turned a blind eye and deaf ear, even after Portland’s “rules” became public in a newspaper interview. Such complicit homophobia in women’s sports is not new, nor is it unique to Penn State. Training Rules demonstrates how homophobia and homophobic policies negatively affects all athletes.

This title is highly recommended for all libraries.

Disclosure: Reviewer attended Penn State when Portland was the women’s basketball coach.

Reviewed by, Amy Hribar
Science Librarian
University of Minnesota

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