Saturday, March 20, 1999
Mason team shows what girls can be
BY KRISTA RAMSEY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
There are so many things to like about the Mason High School girls' basketball team, but one thing have to love is its confidence.
Some members of the team started shooting hoops in third grade, and boy, does it show. They play a physical game, with defense so daunting and offense so clever and quick that things are rarely out of their control. They own the ball. They own the floor. They own the game.
Surely more than one grandmother looks down on the court and thinks how it used to be for girls. In her day, it could well have been half-court games, when many people — or at least the people who set the rules — thought girls were too fragile to tolerate full-court games.
And probably more than one mother in the crowd remembers starting the game in seventh grade, or ninth grade, but certainly not in third. She might have a hard time believing that girls' teams would pack the gym, that they would draw an ardent following of men, women, boys and girls, some of whom would even dye their hair green in loyal support.
Maybe even members of the Mason team, rated No. 1 in the nation by USA Today, have to stop and smile occasionally when they realize they have given a whole new meaning to the notion of “running like a girl.”
And, of course, shooting, scoring and winning like a girl.
The Mason girls are a shining example of what the future looks like for female athletes.
Benefits abound
Finally, researchers are able to see the outcomes of having well-
organized, more adequately funded sports programs in place for girls. Opportunities to play still vary greatly by school district and community, but where they exist, girls benefit greatly. Now researchers can say precisely how.
First, give girls the chance, and they'll compete.
Female participation in sports is at a record level, with 2.57 million high-school girls taking part in an organized sport, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations. In 1971, one in 27 girls participated in a sport. In 1997, it was one in three. (Basketball is the most popular chick sport, with 14.1 million females age 6 and older playing in 1996, up from 11 million in 1987, according to the American Basketball Council.)
It pays to play. Girls in sports are less likely to be overweight, and they have lower blood pressure, cholesterol and triglycerides than nonathletic girls. They are far less likely to have sex, become pregnant or smoke. They have stronger bones and stronger confidence, better grades and better outlooks, and exceptionally wonderful immune systems, all according to research from the Women's Sports Foundation.
Look what sports can do
Girls who play hard feel better — and differently — about their bodies.
“Girls in sports see their bodies as functional, not decorative,” writes Mary Pipher, author of Reviving Ophelia. “They are in a peer group that defines itself by athletic ability rather than popularity, drug or alcohol use, wealth or appearance.”
The idea of a female making peace with her own body is incentive enough to encourage every girl to find a favorite sport. But athletics builds more than bodies. It builds mental strength. It builds friendships. It builds skills. It builds dreams.
Sports teach girls to risk, to handle winning and losing, to work as a team, to hang tough under pressure, to deal with competition and time demands. Although perhaps well-intentioned, parents and teachers have often tried to “protect” girls more than boys, asking less from them in school, keeping them closer by at home. Athletics tells them to be tough. And lets them be.
And what a beautiful thing tough is.
The Mason girls have shown us a great many things this season, not the least of which is seeing how great opportunity looks on a girl.
Krista Ramsey's column appears on Saturdays. Write her at 312 Elm Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202.
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RAMSEY ARCHIVE
