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Jane Possee has seen the rise of women’s sports at Rochester while having a significant hand in shaping them.
Jane Possee, who is celebrating 50 years at the University of Rochester this year, has been instrumental in laying the foundation for the growth of women’s athletics on the River Campus.
The landscape has changed considerably since she began working in the Department of Athletics and Recreation in the fall of 1975. That was only three years after the introduction of Title IX, a federal law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in education, including athletics programs.
“There’s been a lot of professional growth over the years,” says Possee. “It’s great to see where we are today compared to when I started and what we are doing for everybody in athletics, not just women.”
One of Possee’s favorite memories from her five-decade career was establishing the University’s women’s lacrosse program in 1979—one of the first collegiate programs in New York State. She had upward of 70 players interested in joining the nascent program—a testament to the hunger for opportunities in women’s athletics at Rochester and throughout the country.
Since her arrival, Possee has witnessed the varsity women’s sports offerings expand from five teams in 1975 to 12 teams currently, which make up more than half of the Yellowjacket varsity teams. She was the inaugural coach for the women’s lacrosse program and also coached field hockey and basketball before shifting to an administrative role in 1992. Currently, she serves as an associate director of athletics, dealing with recreation programs and facility reservations while also being the point person for capital improvement projects within the department.
According to Possee, the quality of students at Rochester has consistently remained exceptional over the years. She believes that the advent of organized sports at the youth and scholastic levels has greatly improved the quality of the women athletes joining the Yellowjackets in recent years.
“There’s still work to be done,’’ Possee told the Rochester Business Journal. “But there’s always work to be done. The exciting thing is that we have generations of girls and young women who have experienced unlimited opportunities.”
A version of this story appears in the spring 2025 issue of Rochester Review, the magazine of the University of Rochester.