Each Sunday, the gym at Oakton College is abuzz with third- through eighth-grade girls playing sports, complete with occasional interjections from female college athletes and coaches.
This is the sound of a program born from a partnership between Girls Play Sports, an Evanston-based nonprofit, and Oakton College.
The program offers six 90-minute sessions from Jan. 21 to March 3. Each session introduces students to a sport of the week, practice time and lectures on topics like nutrition, how to be a good teammate and the importance of higher education.
Oakton College Athletic Director Christine Paciero said she learned about Girls Play Sports after looking for ways to encourage female athletics.
“Historically, young girls tend to drop out of sports by the time they get that upper middle school to high school level,” said Paciero, a former volleyball athlete and coach.
Paciero and representatives from Girls Play Sports were in talks for almost a year before the program was put into play, she said.
The series aims to not only encourage young girls to play sports but also to teach them important lessons about well-being and personal development through lectures following sports practices.
To ensure accessibility, the program is priced at $10 per session, Paciero said. The girls can choose from specific sports and sessions — including basketball, pickleball, soccer, golf and tennis, softball and volleyball — or they can attend all six.
So far, there has been an average of 10 girls each session, but Paciero hopes to expand the program and encourage greater participation in the future.
“We wanted this to be accessible to all athletes, all young people, all families,” Paciero said. “If we continue this year after year, the program will grow and the popularity and the understanding of the goals of the program will grow as well.”
Each session is facilitated by female Oakton athletes who teach their respective sports, as well as their female coaches. While both the athletes and the coaches have external commitments, it didn’t take much convincing for them to take on the role, Paciero said.
Liz Maday, co-founder and director of programming at Girls Play Sports, said she recognizes the importance of the relationship between older and younger athletes.
“Strong relationships from woman to young girl are very important,” Maday said. “They can really have an impact and be a mentor for young kids who are trying to learn about themselves and are getting exposed to different sports and different opportunities.”
Molly Chambers began participating in Girls Play Sports when she was a freshman in high school and went on to become a coach for the organization. She now plays softball at Princeton University.
Chambers said she believes Girls Play Sports empowers girls in the Evanston community and will ultimately have a nationwide impact as these girls go on to play sports across the country.
“Oftentimes, girls aren’t even provided the opportunity to participate in sports or are very limited in what they think that they can do,” Chambers said. “It’s really empowering for these young girls to be leaders through sport.”
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Twitter: @lmschroeder_
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