National Girls and Women in Sport Day
SWARTHMORE, Pa. -- Swarthmore joined hundreds of other schools and community groups in celebration of the 20th annual National Girls and Women in Sports Day.
Sustained by Girl Scout cookies (one of the sponsoring organizations) and other goodies, several of Swarthmore's female student-athletes marked the occasion with a viewing of Dare to Compete - an HBO documentary detailing the successes and challenges of females in athletic competition over the last 100 years. The documentary was extremely well received, eliciting tears of joy, moans of surprise, fists raised in excitement and sighs of exasperation. The women were challenged to take their place in history of women's athletics - to appreciate the benefits they now enjoy and to 'pay it forward' in a sense.
On February 11th, nearly every Garnet women's team was represented as over twenty varsity athletes inspired and mentored a group of young women from the Chester YWCA. Starting off the day with clinics, these young women were taught volleyball, tennis and soccer skills. They soaked up every minute of instruction and couldn't wait to try out their new skills with the Swarthmore students.
Racing into the Tarble Pavilion, these young women then cheered on our women's basketball team at the top of their lungs as they took on the Gettysburg Bullets. A well-deserved pizza lunch ensued, followed by a final ceremony in the hospitality room. Each participant was given a t-shirt and program containing pictures of every varsity team and a trivia quiz. The first to complete the quiz and the first to acquire the most signatures from varsity athletes and coaches would win prizes. Three of the young women completed the quiz perfectly and another young woman was able to showcase 45 signatures!! Smiles never left the faces of these young women (except when we told them it was time to leave) and the Swarthmore students served as strong role models, teachers and hosts.
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