Photo Credit: NAYS
At a recent annual Youth Sports Congress, which the National Alliance for Youth Sports held virtually to adjust to these challenging times, Kim Turner, who works with the Fair Play for Girls in Sports Project, held an educational session that encouraged park and recreation departments to treat girls equally on and off the field. Sports played a huge role in Turner’s growth and development, as she played on the volleyball team at Brown University.
As someone who is lucky enough (and old enough) to have a daughter who graduated from college and went out into the real world and was hired by a company she loves, I can’t help but look back and appreciate the role that sports played in her development as a motivated and ambitious young adult. In particular, I am glad that girls have the opportunities they now have, though work still needs to be done to ensure all girls have access to and can benefit from the amazing power of sports.
My daughter’s first sport was soccer. She loved playing games but, more importantly to me, she loved practicing. When a child asks to go out in the yard and work on skills, I know she really loves a sport. The other thing I noticed was her natural love of competition. She was a natural defender, and when she’d get beat, I saw her competitive nature take hold and lead her to do better. She was always one of the better players on the team, but never had aspirations beyond having fun on her high school team.