Athletics

Reading over Leila’s blog on her life growing up in sports, I had very mixed feelings. First, I felt anger. Anger that I had missed out. Anger that it never even occurred to me when I was a kid that it was unfair that the girls only did aerobics during gym class and boys got to do everything else. That was the standard, and no one questioned it. I’m angry that I didn’t get the opportunity to play sports and be part of a team, and that I didn’t question the status quo.

You see, when I was growing up, there was no Title IX. Read more »

When I started my freshman year in high school, one of my biggest goals was to make the varsity tennis team. I remember being very intimidated during the first few days of tryouts as I tried to keep up with conditioning exercises and with seasoned players in my matches.

I didn’t make the team that year, but I was ambitious as ever to make it the next year. I worked with my coaches on my spin serve, split-step, and volley technique and attended extra practices. It wasn’t easy, and there were days when I would get home from practice feeling discouraged. But the hard work paid off and I played doubles for the varsity team for the next two years. Read more »

There once was a February day

to honor girls and women who play

Athletics and sports

on fields and on courts

Title IX having paved their way.

Sports builds tough bodies that fight

reaching for even greater heights,

Shaping girls with sharp minds

and hearts that are kind –

Confident leaders who know what is right. Read more »

Working on the issue of Title IX and athletics, the thing I hear most from opponents is that “girls just aren’t that interested in sports.” At NWLC, we believe strongly in the mantra “if you build it they will come.” I know it’s true because I’ve watched my sister do just that at a middle school in California.

When my sister, Sarah Egan, started teaching at Benjamin Franklin Intermediate School in 2009, there were only two girls’ basketball teams with about 20 players between them. The boys’ basketball program, on the other hand, was vibrant, had many teams, and over 70 participants. Basketball was a big part of the culture of Ben Franklin, the students talked about it in the hallways all the time, but girls’ participation numbers were extremely low.

Members of the Benjamin Franklin girls’ basketball program attending a Stanford women’s basketball game. Coach Sarah Egan is pictured on the lower left.

Benjamin Franklin is in Daly City, CA – just south of the San Francisco city line. It’s a predominantly low-income Title I school that is 94% minority. More than half of the kids receive free or reduced lunch. Unlike their suburban counterparts, that many of the girls at Ben Franklin lack the access and confidence garnered through early exposure to team sports. Most had never stepped foot on the court.

“I knew and understood the impact that sports had on my life and knew that it could have the same impact on others. I wanted more girls and I set out to find them,” Sarah said. She spent the majority of the first two seasons recruiting players and demonstrating how to shoot with one hand instead of two, how to make a jump stops, and how to pivot. Her first year coaching, the teams had a 3-13 record. The next year wasn’t any better.

But things have started to turn around.

This year the girls are off to a 6-7 start. Eighty girls showed up for six weeks of mandatory open gym before they even got a chance to try-out for the team. Ben Franklin now has 40 girls playing on four girls’ basketball teams – double what it was only two seasons ago. The program boasts five coaches and an assistant coach – all recruited by Sarah. Read more »

Dear Elliana,

I have a confession to make. As your mama, I know I am supposed to expose you to a lot of activities and let you choose your passion. Or at least that’s what the books and blogs tell me to do. But I really hope you end up loving sports. Why? Read more »

Today is National Girls and Women in Sports Day! This annual event is celebrated on the first Wednesday of February, and this year, we're bringing together some bloggers for a blog carnival to honor women, girls, and the role of sports in their lives.

While writers from around the web are sharing their thoughts, we want you to hear yours, too! Do you have a story about how sports have helped you or a woman or girl you know? Share your story below in the comments section by clicking here.

In the meantime, you can read reflections from our own staff and bloggers from around the net after the break.

I have loved sports from a very early age. By the time I was ten, I was playing basketball, softball, and gymnastics. But when I got to 7^th grade, I found my true love – cross country. A bit of a natural runner, I loved everything about it. I loved the feeling of running through the woods, of slipping on muddy paths, of hearing the encouragement from my teammates as I ran through the finish line.

A lot of people tend to think cross country as a solitary sport; that it’s you running all alone. But it’s not. At least for my cross country life, it was all about the team. We practiced together as a team, stretched together as a team, did silly pranks as a team. And we raced as a team.

Waiting at the start line for the race to begin, I remember my teammates jumping up and down, pumping one another up in order to forget the wracked nerves or our shivering legs exposed to the bitter cold. I remember the guys on the team (whose race started after ours) chanting our school’s sports songs, and us echoing the chants right back at them. I remember that in those rigorous races, you needed that team. You needed those chants. Read more »

What are YOU doing next Wednesday? No plans?

Well, we’re about to change that. February 1^st is National Girls and Women in Sports Day, a day to celebrate and promote girls’ and women’s participation and excellence in sports. NGWSD is marked annually with events around the country and on Capitol Hill to commemorate the achievements of girls and women in athletics, and we’ve got some big things in the works that you can participate in! Read more »

As the old adage goes, you can't solve a problem unless you're able to define it.

We know that girls who play sports reap benefits both on and off the field. But we also know that girls across the country are still not getting equal opportunities to play sports or equal treatment when they do play. To make matters worse, when parents and students try to find out how their schools are allocating valuable athletic opportunities and resources, they are not able to get information.

High schools, like colleges, should be required to make information about their sports programs publicly available. Please ask your Members of Congress to support the High School Athletics Accountability Act, H.R. 458, and the High School Data Transparency Act, S. 1269. These two bills would require high schools to report information, broken down by gender, on sports participation and expenditures. Schools are already collecting this information, but since it is not public, parents and students cannot evaluate their athletics programs to make sure that girls are being treated fairly. Read more »

Welcome to another weekly roundup! We’ve got a few quick hits today, including the possible future of some domestic violence shelters, recognition for an inspiring young scientist, good news in the health care world, and a few celebrations coming up. Read more »