JMU Female Student-Athletes Encourage Girls to be Active in Sports

On Sunday, February 26, James Madison Athletics invited girls in the local community to come out for National Girls & Women in Sports Day at Godwin Hall. The event was focused on engaging in physical activity, fostering teamwork and encouraging living a healthy lifestyle. Student-athletes from the JMU's field hockey, volleyball, soccer and track & field teams were present to help with the various stations focused on their sports.

The event was open to girls in grades K-8 in the Sinclair Gymnasium at Godwin Hall on JMU's campus. At the beginning of the event, the young girls had a chance to hear from athletes who have grown up playing sports and how sports have positively impacted their lives. Then they all participated in four stations including field hockey, volleyball, soccer, and track & field. At the end of the event, field hockey Head Coach Christy Morgan shared a speech, saying, "The biggest lesson is to step out of your comfort zone and experience as much as you can experience."

The student-athletes enjoyed spending their afternoon with the girls. At the track & field station, the girls practiced jumping and fast feet. They also ran relays with golden batons. Senior track & field athlete Ebony Owusu-Sampah said, "Today was very exciting. It was fun having all these girls out here, watching them participate in sports, seeing the glow in their eyes and how much fun they were having. I think it's important to do things like that to show women that it's important to be active and that we can do anything that a guy can do."

The event also is important to the community around JMU. At the soccer station the girls learned how to dribble and score a goal. Freshman soccer athlete Phoebe Dinga acknowledged that, "The importance of the event is to help bring Harrisonburg together as more of a community, make JMU more welcome to all ages just so that growing up, kids learn to love JMU."

At the volleyball station the girls learned how to set, pass and attack. At the end of the event, freshman volleyball athlete Allison Lake said, "Today went incredibly well. It was really sweet to see how the kids worked so hard and how they were so happy to be here with us. To watch them learn, persevere and never give up throughout it, it meant so much for us, especially on the volleyball team. I know we absolutely loved dedicating our entire day to be able to help the kids. It just meant a lot to see how much they learned, how they had fun with the sport and that they were building friendships. It was really, really fun."

The field hockey station provided a chance for the girls to learn how to score a goal and play as a team. Morgan emphasized, "You never know where you're going to excel. You never know if you'll love it or not, so experience as much as you can experience and have fun. You don't have to be the best, you just have to put yourself in and be the best you can be."

Morgan also asked the girls what they learned throughout the event and some of the responses included "friendship," "sportsmanship," and "perseverance."

National Girls & Women in Sports Day is in its 31st year of honoring the accomplishments of female athletes and encouraging continued participation in sports by girls and women. The celebration began in 1987 as a single event to honor former Olympic volleyball player Flo Hyman and has grown to a celebration across all 50 states.

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