Girls & Sports

This week marks the 40th Anniversary of Title IX.  What is Title IX you ask?

“No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance…”

I was never very athletic as a kid.  Oh hell… I’m not athletic as an adult either.  Sports were just not my thing.  That said, I did participate in several sports as a kid.

My earliest “sport” memory was when I was about 9 1/2 years old at camp.  It was an all-girls camp and we were playing softball.  Of course, I was the last one to get chosen.  It certainly didn’t help that I was the shortest one in my bunk.  The game was an utter disaster.  I couldn’t hit as hard or throw as far.  I wanted out badly.

Funny then that I ended up playing on a softball team at home after the camp fiasco.  I still wasn’t very good at hitting or throwing, but I could catch.  Hence… they made me the catcher.  I was great with that.  I was part of a team and I was a pretty decent catcher.  It worked well.  For one season.  Then?  I was done.  Moving on.

My next sport was swimming.  We belonged to a swim club when I was a kid since there weren’t a lot of backyard swimming pools in Connecticut.  When we joined the club, I signed up to be on the swim team.  I was a pretty good swimmer, just wasn’t a great diver.  In fact, diving off the starting blocks was a huge fear for me.  I did it, but I wasn’t happy doing it.  I think I was on the swim team for one season too.  Moving on.

Tennis was next.  I took tennis lessons at the same swim club.  I actually enjoyed playing tennis, but I hated taking lessons.  After one session, I was done.

As you can see, sports and I weren’t exactly a good match.  I never had parents who pushed me into doing them, and I was allowed to try whatever sport I wanted to.  I just didn’t want to do that much.  I was much happier redecorating my doll house or reading my Nancy Drew books.

Now I have three girls.  Three not-very-athletic girls.  Just recently have they been asking about joining organized sports.  My two youngest have become interested in basketball… and all three are interested in tennis.  My middle daughter is a crazy rock-wall climber.  She loves it and although she is the tiniest one in her class (a la Mom) she can reach the top of any rock wall faster than the adults.  The problem is… most rock wall companies won’t allow her to climb the adult walls because she is only 8.  So frustrating that due to insurance restrictions, she isn’t allowed to participate.

I would love my girls to be able to participate more in sports.  We had planned on signing up for tennis lessons this summer, but we couldn’t since we were planning on being away on vacation during two weeks in the middle of the lessons.

My youngest daughter wants to play basketball, but the only teams in our town are co-ed and she doesn’t want to play with the boys.

Our school system doesn’t have teams in elementary school… no money.  And the after school enrichment programs are a joke.  They learn nothing.  I would love it if there were more all-girl teams (other than soccer).  I know the school’s have no money to pay teachers let alone fund after school sports programs… but seriously, it would be so beneficial to our children.

To find out more about Women & Girl’s sports, check out Women’s Sports Foundation.