National Girls and Women in Sports Day
February 8th, 2008

On February 8th, 2008, the Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) hosted Amherst College’s first event celebrating National Girls and Women in Sports Day. Beginning in October of 2007, the SAAC began planning an evening of fun, food, and sports for young girls in grades K-6 in order to honor all female athletes nationwide. Invitations and flyers for the event were sent to elementary and middle schools throughout the town of Amherst as well as to various organizations in the surrounding communities, encouraging children to attend. The members of the SAAC not only wanted to welcome the children into the world of Amherst athletics, but also wanted to introduce them to a variety of conventional and unconventional sports. Although many elementary school girls are not exposed to particular sports due to issues such as funding, the SAAC members hoped that National Girls and Women in Sports Day would give local children the opportunity to try many different activities so that they might one day have a chance to participate in the sports they enjoyed the most.
            More than eighty excited, energetic young girls arrived at Alumni Gymnasium to participate in ten different sports with over fifty Amherst College student athlete volunteers and coaches. After a few minutes of jumping jacks and stretching, the girls were split into smaller groups and directed to their first sport specific stations. For almost two hours, the youngsters had the opportunity to try their hands at crew, field hockey, golf, ice hockey, lacrosse, soccer, softball, squash, tennis, track and field (high jump, hurdles, and shot put) and volleyball. The SAAC members, along with the student volunteers and coaches, prepared fun and easy exercises to play in order to introduce the children to the different facets of each particular sport. Parents smiled with delight as they watched their daughters jump their first hurdles, throw their first softballs, and score their first points on the Squash court.
            At the end of the night, the girls ate pizza and veggies amongst several of Amherst’s athletic trophies as they listened to encouraging words from a few female athletes. Amherst College Diving coach and former Olympian Mary Ellen Clark spoke about winning her Olympic medals while members of the Women’s Cross Country team talked about the excitement of winning a National Championship. The inspiration continued as the girls had a chance to not only watch the Amherst Women’s Basketball team compete against Connecticut College in LeFrak Gymnasium, but to also shoot some hoops on center court at half time. When the game was over, the eighty girls left the athletic complex with a bag full of sporty goodies, a purple t-shirt, and a handful of fun, positive memories. Although National Girls and Women in Sports Day was only one of the many activities the SAAC coordinates in order to form a stronger bond between Amherst College and the surrounding community, it may have been the most rewarding of them all.

Whitney Kouvaris