Myra Bui wants a UF soccer jersey.
The 10-year-old has adopted her family’s love for the Gators even on the soccer fields of Arkansas, where she lives, and she wants to represent the UF women’s team during her own soccer practice. But five years after his daughter started playing the game, David Bui is still looking for a UF female soccer jersey for her.
He searched the UF Bookstore website, Gator Sportshop, eBay and other online providers. But Bui could only find women’s cheerleading uniforms and wanted a different option for his daughter, he said.
“Although I respect cheerleading,” he said, “there should be more options in terms of apparel.”
The UF Bookstore doesn’t carry women’s jerseys because none of their manufacturers make them, UF spokeswoman Janine Sikes wrote in an email.
“The UAA does require its leasing agent to carry product representative of all UF sports,” she said. “They do not specify what that product should be.”
Women’s soccer and other UF sports all have T-shirts in the bookstore, but the only jerseys for sale in the UF Bookstore and the Gator Sportshop are men’s football, basketball, baseball and cycling.
There is an issue when boys have options for sports gear and girls don’t, Bui said, especially when the women’s soccer team has produced Olympic athletes such as Abby Wambach.
“Female sports seems (sic) to take a backseat to male athletic programs,” he said.
UF women’s soccer coach Becky Burleigh said she doesn’t control any soccer apparel production; the sports shops decide what will be profitable to produce.
“I don’t think a jersey is the connection,” she said. “I mean, I think that we offer T-shirts that are specific to every sport, male or female.”
Bui said he doesn’t specifically blame UF for its lack of women’s apparel compared to men’s because it is a problem for many public universities. But he said he believes UF is in the right position to set an example to start selling these products.
“It’s not just about a jersey,” he said. “It’s about the school’s supporting women’s sports.”
