Invest in Women's Sports
As I was looking for a picture on Facebook to help fundraise for W&M Volleyball, I stumbled across a post I wrote from 2 ½ years ago (see below). It’s so interesting that right now we are discussing how women’s sports are on the rise and yet just a few short years ago, it was a dagger in my heart when my D1 Volleyball Program was cut due to lack of funds.
Some numbers that have jumped out at me lately:
NCAA Women's National Championship's 9.9 million viewers more than any Stanley Cup game since 1973, the 2023 Orange Bowl, the 2023 Sugar Bowl, 2023 Thursday Night Football and more than (full list here) https://twitter.com/FOS/status/1643051889846525953
The San Diego Wave Soccer Club (NWSL) played a home opener to 30,854 fans
3/26/23 Iowa v. Louisville Elite 8 WBB game on ESPN had more TV viewers than any NBA game on the network this season
https://twitter.com/complexsports/status/1640807364927410194?s=21
South Carolina’s women’s basketball average 13,308 fans at home this year, more than all but 19 of the men’s basketball teams in D1
https://twitter.com/bachscore/status/1637557047808933891?s=21
United States Women vs. Japan: Final Match — 2015 World Cup was watched by more than 25 million viewers (and is still the highest rated game for US Soccer ever)
Angel City Football Club (NWSL) is a women-led ownership group that is mission-driven to level the playing field in women's sports
And, these are the old metrics. If we get into social media followers and influencers, women athletes like Serena Williams, Sue Bird, and Megan Rapinoe are leading the pack.
I am SO very grateful that the William & Mary women’s volleyball program has been reinstated and is going strong! I know I would not have had the life journey both professionally (showing up at Nike’s doorstep in Austria in ‘95 & convincing them to hire me) & personally (talking to the tall cute guy from Eugene, OR, in the Irish pub in Budapest, Hungary) without the leadership, resilience, grit, collaboration and gratitude skills I learned from being a college athlete at a place as special as W&M.
As we all know, life is tenuous and we need to learn from the past. If I have learned anything, it’s that we need to invest in women’s sports now or they might not be around later!!!! What a loss that would be.
Life Without College Athletics?
September 3, 2020
Up until high school, I was by far the tallest in my class. Despite being labeled an "amazon", sometime around 3rd grade, I enjoyed the fact that I picked up most sports including softball, basketball, and volleyball with ease. I took pride in not only competing with the boys but occasionally beating them. I recall a high school P.E. class standing up to bat and one of the boys in the outfield shouted towards home plate, "Everyone back up, Amazon is going deep!" Which is exactly what I did. Another day we were playing badminton and my male opponent complained it wasn't fair he had to play me, "She should be taken out of the tournament, she's too dominant," he whined.
All I wanted to do and be was an athlete. In high school, I played basketball in my white Magic Johnson Converse hi-tops with purple and gold plates that slide inside the vector logo window. For volleyball, we had hand me down uniforms, with bright yellow polyester shorts and faded shrunken purple shirts. I was fortunate enough to play on four state championship teams across the two sports and finish runner-up with a basketball team that lost in the state title game going 32-1 on the season. Ugh. Even with that painful singular loss, I loved everything about it.
By 1991, I didn't walk into The College of William & Mary through the front door of the Wren Building, as other new students do. I transferred in to play volleyball as a redshirt junior. I was coming off a rough three years. I reached my initial dream of playing volleyball in college at a top DI program but because I hadn't vetted my choice wisely, I was left reeling from the lack of support by that coaching staff. After enduring public humiliation about my weight one too many times, I mentioned I might leave and the coach approved my release without question. What I was walking into at William & Mary would be life-changing for me.
When I met the Head Coach, Debbie Hill, for the first time on my recruiting trip, we sat in her faded silver minivan, which smelled of goldfish and spilled apple juice from her three-year-old daughter, baby Milla. As we sat parked outside of the gym, she candidly shared how her partner Camilla he just survived breast cancer. She got tears in her eyes as she told me how precious she realized life could be and this was why she coached. She loved to help others and every day she was grateful that she got to do what she loved.
She had me at hello.
At that moment I knew I was coming to play for someone who was passionate about the sport of volleyball, but more than anything, someone who cared for others beyond the sport. I was still reeling from three years of never being enough.
What I got from my two years at William & Mary went far beyond the conference championship we won or the records we set for the program, including ending my first year there ranked #24th in the nation. I learned what it meant to be strong and brave. I learned to be a leader among powerful women. These women have gone on to run Peace Corps programs, prestigious private schools, become brain surgeons, lawyers and pediatric doctors, leaders in the sports industry, and coaches of other top 10 volleyball programs in the country. One is a now professor at Georgetown University while another is a leading archeologist in her field. These women were competitors then and it shows in what they've each accomplished in the twenty-plus years since.
Yesterday, William & Mary announced it was cutting its Women's Volleyball program. This news stopped me in my tracks. As I've spent the last 24 hours reflecting on what college athletics gave me, I cried for those girls who won't get the opportunity to see their dreams come true. I cried for the coaching staff who I know is beyond committed to their players, parents, and alum. And I cried for younger players who will never know what it would be like to play on that stage and learn the life lessons which will take them far beyond the court.
The lessons I think every parent wants their child to learn, including what it means to be resilient, gritty, and goal-oriented. To understand that not getting the win or playing well on game day doesn't mean the end but means it's time to get back to the basics and work harder and smarter. Most parents aren't hoping that their child will one-day turn pro, they just want them to acquire skills through the lessons of sports that allow them to become successful in whatever they choose to pursue in life.
I can't imagine what my path would have been without sports. I probably wouldn't have had a 14+ year career at NIKE or become a Peak Performance Coach. I am a more empathic, confident, kind, capable mother, wife, daughter, and friend because of those life lessons I learned being a part of a team, in fact, part of a TRIBE. It was not only the victories that mattered, but more importantly what I learned from the defeats, the losses, and the times when I had to pack my bags and change direction. There are too many gifts for me to count which I'll be forever grateful to Debra Hill and my former teammates who remain life long friends. I am also grateful to The College of William & Mary for what was certainly formative for who I have become.
I'd like to end by saying what my heart hurts most for my teenage daughter. What if this becomes a trend and college athletics isn't an option for her in a few years should she choose to pursue it? This is something I just can't fathom.
Rip 'em up,
Tear 'em up
Give 'em hell, Tribe