The Daily Orange

Media Credit: Rachel Fus

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Two months ago Fantasia Goodwin was in uniform playing for the Syracuse women's basketball team. On Thursday, she was in the maternity ward of St. Joseph's hospital in Syracuse giving birth to a baby girl.

On Monday, Goodwin spoke about it for the first time.

"I had a baby Thursday evening at 7:34," Goodwin said. "She's healthy, I'm healthy. We're both doing great. I plan on returning back to Syracuse in the fall to continue my senior year and play basketball for Syracuse University. I will be taking online classes this summer, and in August she's going to be with family while I attend school."

Goodwin said no one on the team or the coaching or training staff knew about her pregnancy. She said head coach Quentin Hillsman was the first person she told, on Feb. 25, the night before the final game of the season at Cincinnati. She said Hillsman immediately told her to go see the team doctor and not play.

"Everyone found out the same time," Goodwin said. "I was playing pregnant, yes, and no one knew about it. And when they found out, that's why I didn't play (the last game)."

The Daily Orange first reported of Goodwin's birthing in Monday's edition.

Goodwin would not say why she played the entire season knowing she was pregnant. She also declined to comment on why she chose the last game to tell Hillsman.

Hillsman declined to comment out of respect for Goodwin's privacy.

Syracuse Director of Athletics Daryl Gross addressed the matter to The Daily Orange on Monday.

"It's private," he said. "Fantasia is a wonderful woman. Birth is a wonderful thing. We think she's a terrific, terrific human being, and we support her. We love her in the Syracuse family and think she's going to do great things and be a terrific role model."

Goodwin, a transfer from Monroe (N.Y.) College, started every game for the Orange this season - except for the last game, when she was kept off the court.

Keeping pregnancy hidden is not an uncommon prerogative for athletes, especially if the athletics department has no policy in place regarding athletes' pregnancies.

When asked if Syracuse had any such policy, a member of the athletics department said they will not discuss health guidelines for student-athletes.

A spokesperson for the SU athletic department did offer this statement:

"When the athletic department becomes aware that a student-athlete in a physical contact sport is pregnant, we pull her immediately and refer her to our medical staff."

If there is no policy in place, a pregnant athlete could be at risk of losing scholarship or being forced off the team, said Elizabeth Sorensen, assistant professor at the College of Nursing and Health and NCAA faculty athletics representative at Wright State (Ohio).

That is exactly why Sorensen became involved with the NCAA. She has been working for the last five years on getting schools to adopt policies for pregnant athletes. The primary goal is ensuring the athlete doesn't lose her scholarship.

"We have got to protect their scholarship," Sorensen said. "If we have a situation where we're asking or requiring an athlete to step forward and say she's pregnant, but it's going to result in her scholarship getting yanked, then of course nobody's going to step forward because they stand to lose everything."

Part of Sorensen's work has been collecting and analyzing all the policies from around the nation. She has not gotten one from Syracuse and said it may either be because she hasn't discovered one or there isn't one.

Today, Sorensen only knows of 53 policies in the country. That represents just 4 percent of the universities and colleges that have athletics departments.

"It's not a good thing for the student-athlete, and it's not a good thing for the university, and it's not a good thing for her baby for the university to have an environment where she doesn't feel safe revealing her need for help," Sorensen said.

As for playing sports while pregnant, the risks grow as the timetable grows. Up to 14 weeks, there is very little physical risk of injury to the person or the baby no matter what the sport, Sorensen said. After that point, though, the danger depends on what the physical activity is. Basketball, Sorensen said, is not the same as swimming, and a lot depends on several factors for the subject themselves, such as pre-existing physical conditions, level of contact in the sport, adequate nutrition and hydration, and the amount of prenatal care.

"If they have good prenatal care, good nutrition, good physical condition, the athlete can continue competing way longer than 14 weeks," Sorensen said. "It just depends."

Wright State's policy for dealing with pregnant athletes is one of the most comprehensive in the nation. A section in the student-athlete handbook is devoted to student-athletes and pregnancy, and it outlines solutions to six prompts: "What to do if you become pregnant," "What happens to your scholarship?" "Who can help you?" "Can you continue training/competing?" "What is covered by your insurance?" and "What if you're a male whose partner becomes pregnant?"

The NCAA and Title IX rules allow for a student-athlete to take a leave of absence for pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions for as long as deemed necessary by a physician and still be reinstated with her prior status. It also allows for a one-year extension to the five-year eligibility for "reasons of pregnancy."

Not displaying physical signs of child-bearing for a duration of the pregnancy period is not entirely uncommon, either. In 2003, a Louisville women's basketball player played until she was eight months pregnant - without any other team member knowing about it. Louisville did not and still does not have a policy in place regarding pregnant athletes.

The athletes on the basketball team wear loose clothing and are generally fit and athletically built, so the fact Goodwin was able to hide her pregnancy for so long did not surprise Sorensen.

What also didn't surprise Sorensen was her decision to keep it secret.

"If we don't make an environment where they feel safe coming forward to say 'Look, come and help me,'" Sorensen said, "then this sort of risk situation continues to happen over and over again."

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