Roughly 50 small hands raised in unison Saturday morning as the girls inside the North End Recreation Center in Waterbury confirmed that at some point in their young lives they’d been told they couldn’t succeed at something they wanted to do.
It was a sobering moment on a day meant for fun and learning, and it served as a reminder that the purpose of Saturday’s event is as relevant as ever.
The girls, whose ages ranged from around seven to 12 years old, were part of the Sports 4 Life Clinic, which was co-founded by the Women’s Sports Foundation and espnW in 2014. The clinic is designed to increase girls’ interest in sports while also providing them with leadership skills and confidence that will translate into their academic lives, with the hope that it will boost their physical and mental well being.
“I think representation is everything,” Connecticut Sun guard and clinic panelist Layshia Clarendon said. “For them to see that gold medal in someone’s hands, to see a woman who has short hair, to see another person who’s a cop and another person who works on television — representation is everything.
“I remember being a young girl and Ruthie Bolton coming to a camp once and being like ‘What? This woman plays in the WNBA? There is a WNBA?’ I just think representation means a lot, so for them to just see us is important because you have to see it to believe it, especially for a lot of young women of color. It’s important for them to see role models and get involved. Girls are dropping out of sports left and right, so I think it’s great for them to be reminded there are women who are doing all sorts of amazing things.”
To show the participants a variety of successful women, the clinic started with a 30-minute panel featuring Clarendon, Olympic medalist and Women’s Sports Foundation President Elana Meyers Taylor, ESPN’s Jen Lada and Waterbury police detective Andrea Saunders, before girls were split into groups to work on an array of basketball skills.
The panel touched on how sports helped each woman, explained the importance of Title IX and discussed barriers that have been broken by female athletes. The girls were treated to empowering stories of success, phrases each panelist likes to repeat to herself to stay motivated and plenty of encouraging words.
For Lada, who gave a rousing speech about taking pride in your own success and building other women up, incorporating the panel into the day’s activities seemed like the perfect way to remind participants that what you learn through sports can translate into every aspect of your life.
“I think that sports are such a good avenue for life lessons, so the marriage between the sports aspect of it and the encouragement is perfect,” Lada said. “Even in sports you’re going to fail often as you’re learning a skill, as you’re continuing on your sports journey. But it’s learning from that failure and reminding these young ladies that it doesn’t define them, that it’s part of the experience. I think that sports have always been this incredible intersection of sports and life, and I think at a very young age that we’re trying to teach these girls that they will gain so much confidence from being involved in sports because they will learn responsibility, representation, how to fail, how to succeed.”
While Saturday’s event helped girls in the Waterbury area with basketball skills and life lessons, it was also a big step in continuing to keep them engaged in sports thanks to a $5,000 donation from the Women’s Sports Foundation. The foundation also donated 25 basketballs to the recreation center.
Kelli Stacy can be reached at kstacy@courant.com.
