Women’s History In The Making

 

 

Chatham County Parks & Recreation is making history

with new All-Girls Sports Leagues

 

It’s always great news when the home team wins their games, and it’s big news when they win their district titles.  It’s even bigger news when those teams go on to the state championships -- especially when they’re the first teams stood up in a brand-new league.  And it’s historic news when that league is the first-ever All-Girls League in Chatham County.

Chatham County Parks and Recreation has thoughtful goals for how they can better serve our community.  One of those goals is increased programming for various underserved populations, such as senior citizens, residents with disabilities, and perhaps surprisingly, specifically for girls.  This includes academic programming like STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) camp and athletic programming like girls’ sports. Recreation Supervisors Jonathan Newton and Zach Bailey are working to make it all happen, and they’re seeing these goals steadily becoming realities for the girls of Chatham County.

Even in the age of Title IX, opportunities in women’s sports are generally not as plentiful as they are in men’s sports.  It may be a bit of a chicken-and-egg situation.  If there is not demonstrated interest in sports for girls and women, then there won’t be facilities and programs dedicated to them; and if there aren’t the facilities and programs, there won’t be as much interest developed.  What to do? 

Here's where community sports programs like Chatham County Parks and Recreation can make a huge difference.  For starters, they can make a difference for all kids, whether boys or girls.  This is because kids aren’t introduced to organized sports at school until they get to middle school, and – just like with reading or languages or music – they’ll have to work much harder to be successful if they’re just starting at that point and haven’t practiced from an early age.  Community T-Ball and Peewee Football are invaluable in allowing little kids, predominantly boys, to make athletics a part of their age-appropriate development.  Co-ed teams are more common nowadays, but until recently, all-girls teams have been far from common.

Does it matter?  Are girls' leagues really that different?  Jonathan answers before the question even clears the air, “Yes, definitely!   I mean, the competition -- the boys are boys, just right there. Boys are boys. They move different. They play different. They’ve got a different level of physicality that comes with the game.  So when you’re playing in a mixed league, an all-girls team against all-boys teams, you could find girls starting to not want to play the sport.”

More and more these days, outstanding professional, Olympic, and varsity female athletes are being acknowledged as stars of the same caliber as their male counterparts.  They are serving as motivation for young girls to consider athletics as a part of their own lives, their own identities, and their own world of possibilities.  Dare we say it?  When girls are playing in “a league of their own,” they are more likely to see athletics as something meant for them.  They are more likely to stick with it and to reap the known benefits of it, from healthy lifestyles, to the commitment and camaraderie of being part of a team, to the discipline, judgement, and confidence that comes with acquired skills. 

Zach points out another significant factor. “Girls’ flag football is a high school sport now -- it's a GHSA sport.  So the interest is growing, because now it's going into colleges and there are getting to be places for girls to be able to play other than in high school.  And the interest is growing because now they're offering scholarships for playing that game, too!” 

That big picture is another part of why Chatham County has prioritized offering these sports opportunities.  Jonathan worked with local schoolteacher Cassie Thompson to run a flag football league of eight teams this past year. “There was the interest during football camp -- we had a bunch of school-age kids, first to fifth graders out there, trying to figure out how they could continue playing after the camp.  Cassie helped put together the league, and we helped provide the space.”  In addition to girls’ soccer, Zach is bringing softball back to Savannah, with four divisions of girls’ softball, starting with softball t-ball and going all the way up to regular player-pitched teams.  To use another movie phrase, “if you build it, they will come.”  He had 250 girls sign up for the softball draft this year.  The interest is there. 

If anything, the limitation is space.  Parks and Recreation is grateful for strong, mutually beneficial partnerships with the Frank Callen Boys & Girls Club and with schools such as Oglethorpe Charter Academy, Hesse K-8 School, and Islands Elementary School, who share their gym and field spaces.  The County is still willing to stretch and grow more. “Come play t-ball, flag football, basketball, whatever else,” Zach says. “And if you’ve got an idea for something else, bring it to us, and we can see if we can make it work!”  Jonathan makes the winning pitch for sports being available to everyone who wants to participate, “It’s fun, and you make real friends, and good stuff like that -- that’s a real thing! It also builds character and leadership skills; it gets kids away from screentime and lets them find those virtual things – competition, community, excitement – out in the real world.”

Ask the players in that new All-Girls League about those things.  Nine teams of girls got to personally experience competition, community, and excitement in the real world of basketball team sports for the first time this year. 

It was nothing short of historic for them and for Chatham County.