A young girl sprints through a tunnel of raised hands made by coaches, volunteers and staff from the United Way of Buffalo & Erie County. Following that young girl is a herd of more young girls dressed in bright red shirts. As they enter, they are greeted with applause and cheers, Mrs. Mary Wilson among them.
Their vivid, beaming smiles pack into the University of Buffalo’s Alumni Arena bleachers on the warm, autumn Saturday afternoon. First, they are presented with a powerful and energetic performance by Buffalo’s Finest Drill team. They were then given inspiring words before the event began, including the fiery speech of UB Women’s basketball coach, Felisha Legatte-Jack.
“YOU ARE PRETTY,” she said pointing at over 190 young girls, “EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU! YOU ARE PRETTY AND DON’T EVER LET ANYONE TELL YOU DIFFERENT! If anyone says to you, ‘you can’t do that, you’re a girl’, you just say and never forget this, ‘JUST. WATCH. ME.’”
Those words set the tone for the day as the Fall 2016 Western New York Girls in Sports event was underway. Girls from various Buffalo Public Schools parted off to partake in a wide array of sports including soccer, golf, volleyball, basketball, pickle ball, running and others.
In a sometimes overly macho society, the WNY Girls in Sports bi-annual event (Spring and Fall) provides young girls the opportunity to truly learn “Girl Power”, gain a sense of confidence and believe in their own special and unique abilities.
The many different sports allow this future generation of young women the chance to explore something that they maybe haven’t done before. Coach Patty of The First Tee of Western New York is surrounded by a group of participants explaining how to swing a golf club. “Who wants to try,” she asks. Every hand is raised high. Soon every hand is gripping a golf club and the girls are taking chip shots into a net.
After 10 minutes, the buzzer sounds and the groups switch to another station in the gym. This goes on for the next two hours. Founder of the clinic, Mrs. Wilson, even partakes in a few activities as well. Then it was time for lunch. To join them and speak a few words was a special guest.
US Olympian rower and gold medalist, Emily Regan. Of course she also brought along her very gold, very large and surprisingly heavy medal. Excitement was just about at its peak. If this were never to happen again, the girls would certainly never forget it.
Regan opens up with taking group selfies with all of the girls. She then gives some words of encouragement and talks about her journey as a woman in sports. When she opened it up for questions? The girls only wanted to know about rowing.
“What is rowing?” a young girl asks with great curiosity.
Regan, very shocked at the question, delightfully gives a brief but detailed explanation of the sport. Then gives an admittedly awkward, standing demonstration of how to row.
It was evident that WNY Girls in Sports meant a lot to Regan. She offered to stay after the event to take pictures and sign autographs.
“I’m here for you all,” she says as she receives cheers and an ovation.
“I think first of all, sports have given me so much in my life,” said Regan. “In terms of confidence and skills outside of sports. I think giving those skills and getting girls involved in sports so they can develop those skills is of huge importance and that’s the great thing about today.”
The second half of the clinic begins and the energy is still high. The girls were rejuvenated by Regan’s inspiring words that definitely stuck. Back at the stations, a few girls were working on their own standing-rowing mechanics.
In what seemed like a second, the 2016 fall event was coming to a close. Mrs. Wilson is soon surrounded by happy, smiling faces as she gives her thanks to everyone involved in the day’s overall success.
As the girls started to file out of the gym and back onto their buses to go back to school, they carried a little more with them than when they came. They took away a greater sense of confidence that they can succeed at anything and everything. They took away mental snapshots of the people that support them and the people who will continue to support them. Each of them also took back an autographed tennis ball by Mrs. Wilson as a token of her gratitude.
Most importantly, all 191 budding young women took with them that sports isn’t just about winning and losing. It’s a way for them to build and grow relationships with their friends, their family and themselves.
