On the day after the final federal Title IX Commission hearing was held in Washington, D.C., it was tempting for the wrestling community and the Olympic sports family to feel good about themselves.    The 15-member blue ribbon panel made a number of recommendations that could help sports like wrestling survive a bit better in the future. The efforts of the quota advocates to derail all the proposals for change fell short. The Department of Education will receive a report next month that might allow them to adjust the measurement procedures for Title IX compliance.    Don't go there. This is not a time for patting ourselves on the back, or smiling too much. In fact, this is a time for increased hard work and creative strategy. We are nowhere near the goal line yet. If this were a football game, we have not even reached halftime. The score remains very close at this juncture.    This is a battle we have chosen to fight. And fight we must, all the way through the process, or else all of our successes in the past year could go away.     Using a chicken analogy at this point is a pretty good way to discuss what the next year might be like within the Title IX debate. Our chickens are still eggs, and need much more time in the nest before they hatch. These eggs are very fragile, and we still need to protect them closely or they might get cracked by attackers and become scrambled.    * Special interest groups will become Chicken Little - "The sky is falling. Millions of girls will lose opportunities to play. Millions of dollars of scholarship dollars will disappear for women in college. Thirty years of progress will be erased in a single day."    Do you think some of the rhetoric and statistics you heard in recent months are bad? Wait for what comes next. As we speak, the quota advocates will be going through the Commission recommendations and taking a pencil to the math. They will claim again that these specific proposals will take away opportunities and money from women.    The numbers will be bogus, but the quota advocates will claim they are true. They will spread it like fertilizer. The sad part is that many in the media will believe it, and some in the general public will buy into it. It will be our job to take an eraser to their math and to point out the ridiculous nature of their fear tactics. We will have to repeat the truth, again and again and again. This will take great time, energy and patience.    * We can't chicken out now - In case you didn't notice, we are in a war here. The Commission hearings were just one battle, and there will be many more battles ahead. The forces on the other side will become greater, and there will be new generals and foot soldiers added to the fray.    Early in this fight, it was mostly sports leaders who engaged in the public debate on Title IX. Those who defend the status quo have reached out to others in the liberal, feminist world for help. During the final hearings in DC, Martha Burk, the women's leader who is taking on The Masters and Hootie Johnson, stopped by. Burk said that Title IX might be more important than Augusta and that she is ready to get involved. There were people from radical national organizations there, such as the Feminist Majority and NOW, all standing alongside Donna Lopiano and the other sports quota groups. We have to stand strong and continue fighting, and also reach out for more people and resources to continue the campaign.    * Why eat chicken when you hunger for steak? - The proposals offered by the Commission as a group may release some of the pressures on colleges to cut men's sports. That might taste good. However, we have to remember that we wanted more from this meal. We wanted proportionality eliminated. The Commission voted down a proposal to kill the quota, by a resounding 11-4 margin.    We can still eat steak if we continue to press for the elimination of proportionality. There remain a few ways for that to happen. First, the Department of Education may still decide to wipe out the quota when rewriting the rules. This will take great courage by the Bush administration, and they must receive considerable public support if they go for this. We will need to keep up the pressure. Another way to get rid of the quota is through the National Wrestling Coaches Association lawsuit. This effort must continue through the courts, and we must support that however we can.    * Catching chickens is very difficult - Remember that Rocky movie when Rocky Balboa is training for his big fight by chasing and catching chickens? By making their recommendations, the Commission has released a number of chickens in our pen. Since nothing has been done yet, those chickens are still running around. We need to chase down those chickens, grab them and put them in a sack. We need to make sure those proposals become reality.    Rocky was not able to catch the chickens when he first tried. But he stayed at it, with support of his coach. He got lighter on his feet. He got more motivated. At the end of training, Rocky caught the chickens and mastered the challenge. We are Rocky right now. We won't win our fight unless we capture those chickens, unless we keep at it until we get what we want.    * This chicken is still in the road - If the other side of the road is where Title IX reform is located, we are still in the middle of traffic. Cars and trucks are coming at us from both directions and we still must keep moving forward while watching out for oncoming vehicles of all sizes. One slip and we might get run over.    The Commission hearings are just part way across the road. Next the Bush Administration must decide to write new rules. Then those rules must go through normal rule-making procedures, which takes months and includes public comment. At the same time, our opponents are going to take their case to Congress and to the media, and try to derail these efforts. There will be more and more vehicles in the road, coming at higher speeds.     * Unfed chickens don't make it to market - In order to sell our chickens, we must feed them and keep them healthy. Neglect the chickens and they will not be ready for market. In our case, the food for growth is money and public support.    Winning a war takes funding. The NWCA lawsuit has costs, for attorneys, public relations firms, travel and more. The College Sports Council, a group that represents many sports seeking Title IX change, is in need of funding to continue its work. To keep the chicken feed coming, we also need to be prominent in the news and out in front of others.     * Making chicken salad - There are many groups and individuals who have been negatively hurt by the current enforcement of Title IX. Out there by themselves, these groups are just like chicken droppings. However, banded together and organized behind a winning strategy, these people can work as a team. Finding other groups and people to get involved in the fight for reform will bring more ingredients into the kitchen. Properly prepared, we can make a great salad, each part with its own taste but with a tasty combined flavor.     * To kill a chicken, cut off its head - The leadership in the battle for Title IX reform has been and will continue to be under attack by those protecting the status quo. Our opponents will be swinging their axes, trying to sever our leaders at the neck. There will be misinformation campaigns and personal attacks, designed to discredit our leaders and their organizations. We need to protect our leaders and, in some cases, swing our own axes at the leaders of our opponents. If we get hit sometimes, we need to stitch the wound and move forward.     Heard enough chicken stories? I hope they make sense to you. The message here is that we can not be happy and complacent based upon the Commission hearings. This story is far from being told.