Greater Lansing Looking to Draw More Girls Into Sports With Events this Week
Young girls drop out of sports at a much higher rate than their male counterparts and given the lifelong skills kids learn from sports, Greater Lansing is on a mission to get more girls engaged in sports.
This week, events that introduce girls to new sports and spotlight prominent women in athletics will be held locally to celebrate National Girls & Women in Sports Day, said Meghan Ziehmer, executive director of the Lansing Sports Commission.
On Wednesday, the commission has planned a FIERCE Women in Sports speaker event at the MSUFCU Headquarters building in East Lansing featuring speakers like Michigan State University’s Head Women’s Volleyball Coach Kristen Kelsay and Sports Geographer and TEDx Speaker Jen Fry.
This is the second year the Lansing Sports Commission is putting on the FIERCE speaker event, FIERCE standing for Females Ignite Empower Respect Collaborate and Engage. The commission will also host a clinic for girls to try their hand at different sports, Ziehmer said.
“We wanted to try to get more girls engaged in sports. Obviously, the participation for girls is much lower than it is for boys and some of that is due to lack of opportunity. Some of it’s due to lack of females in the positions,” Ziehmer said, adding that representation matters and when women aren’t visible in positions throughout sports, it can be hard for girls to see where they fit in.
It’s recognized by organizations like the Women’s Sports Foundation, UN Women and the U.S. Soccer Foundation that by age 14, girls drop out of sports at twice the rate of boys, a disparity caused by issues like a lack of resources and support for girls sports.
“I think girls tend to struggle with that sense of place from a young age and I think creating it and showcasing that, it doesn’t matter what sport you’re playing, it doesn’t matter if you’re good or if you’re bad, that there’s really a space for you,” Ziehmer said. “You look at the world that we’re living in right now, with the state of mental health and all of that, studies show that the more you participate in sports and physical activity in general, the more some of those things tend to fall in place and… we just wanted to create an empowering space for young girls and women just to kind of come together and support one another and feel like they have a have a place here in Greater Lansing.”
Building on the momentum of rising popularity and increased airtime for women’s sports like basketball and hockey, Ziehmer said the sports commission will host the inaugural FIERCE Girls in Sports Clinic on Saturday at the Don Johnson Fieldhouse in Lansing.
The clinic is for girls in 3rd to 6th grade and features five rotating stations where girls can learn about pickleball, golf, archery, esports and field hockey.
Girls field hockey made its debut last summer as an official sport under the Michigan High School Athletic Association. Ziehmer said the Lansing Sports Commission is working with the Great Lakes Regional Field Hockey Association to grow opportunities for girls who are interested in the sport in mid-Michigan.
Despite growing interest across demographics for pickleball, building up the infrastructure to support budding interest is lacking in the Greater Lansing area, East Lansing resident and professional pickleball player Kristin Reinhart said. It can be hard to access courts and in terms of education and programming, pickleball culture is still in its infancy in mid-Michigan.
Reinhart will be one of the leaders of the pickleball rotation at the FIERCE Girls in Sports Clinic and said she’s looking forward to introducing girls to a sport dominated by a 19-year-old woman.
“The best player in the world just turned 19, Anna Leigh Waters, she’s insane. I mean, she obviously started when she was like 11 or 12. She’s amazing, obviously, amazing athlete,” Reinhart said. “You go out and you see families playing and it truly is a sport for everyone to play, I think that’s one of the best things.”
The value of sports for a lot of people, especially for kids, doesn’t lie in wins or losses, Reinhart said. In life, in a person’s career, the value of having participated in sports and contributed to a team manifests in how individuals overcome hard times or stressful scenarios.
Sports teach you to work with other people and develop leadership skills, Reinhart said, remembering lessons learned through her lifelong love for golf.
“In life, you have the ups and downs. You have great successes, but then sometimes you learn more when you lose,” Reinhart said. “How you come back from that and what you learn and just being there for someone as a teammate… sports help carry you and make you more well-rounded to be successful in life.”