DEBORAH CROMBIE: I know I've mentioned here on the blog that my granddaughter (who will be TEN tomorrow!! Happy birthday, Wren!) is playing soccer, and how much I LOVE going to her games. I tried to get a good action shot last night but it's hard when they're moving so fast!
Obviously, I love supporting her, but I also love supporting all the girls. It's been fascinating to watch their personalities and characters develop over the couple of years the team has been together, and to see their strengths in the way they play and interact with one another. I love that they are such good sports–more important than any athletic achievements, in my opinion. They're good natured when they lose and they're kind to their opponents. You wouldn't guess Wren's team lost from this picture with her dad!
My daughter played sports, too (as she reminds me!), a couple of years of soccer and then softball up into early middle school, when she switched to gymnastics.
I, however, did not, and I envy these girls the experience. Before Title IX in 1972, a few high schools had girls' basketball and volleyball teams, but there was nothing organized for younger girls. Girls were expected to want to be cheerleaders and that was pretty much it.
Would I have been any more athletic or coordinated if the opportunities had been available? Maybe not, but I'm sorry I missed that boat, and really glad I get to experience it vicariously!
How about you, dear REDs? Did you play sports? Did/do your kids/grandkids play sports? And did you love it or hate it?
RHYS BOWEN: I had sporty high achieving parents. My mom was a schools high jump champion. My dad a good soccer and cricket player. I started tennis when I was 8 and it was a big part of my life until I was in my 60s and got a damaged disc between my shoulder blades. I played for school, college and in various groups. In school I was also on the netball team. In college captain of table tennis ( in which I still play a mean game!)
Going to a girl’s school we had every sport offered to us. My own kids started on swim teams when they were five and some moved to water polo ( still an important sport for Jane and daughter Meghan) They play golf and pickleball.
I also watch any sport on TV ( except darts and bowling. Too boring)
I should add that the one sport I hated was watching my grandson in high school wrestling! Horrifying!
HALLIE EPHRON: There were virtually no sports for women (pre Title 9) when I was in grammar school. We had “gym” every day but all I remember is lining up in size places and taking a shot at the basket and playing dodge ball. In high school, having to take swimming was pure torture, and I had a very frequently recurring “period” that excused me.
Things are so much better now. My daughter played soccer – on the girls team and a coed team. She liked the girls team better. My granddaughter is on the swim team and does gymnastics and (heaven help me) “cheer.” It’s great, but exhausting from a parent’s perspective, having to show up (which we WANT to do) at so many events and cheer her on.
DEBS: That's a lot, Hallie! Wren is still in gymnastics, but it's very low key, and I'm not sure how much longer that will last with the demands of soccer.
JENN McKINLAY: YES! Basketball, volleyball, and judo as a youth. Volleyball as an adult. And now, I’m taking Tai Chi in an adult ed class because why not? I was a kid in the seventies and a tween/teen in the eighties so sports were a big thing for girls. Mostly, I got lucky that I had a sibling less than a year older than me and he included me in everything so I also played hockey, skateboarded, kayaked, hiked, fished, boogie boarded, and skied. I’m sure I’m missing some stuff, too. Looking back, we were very busy in the best possible way.
HANK PHILLIPI RYAN: Argh. ALL I wanted was to be on some team, any team, anything. There were no girls teams, though, not formally, it was more “let's play softball during gym class.” But there was no one worse at sports than I–maybe because I refused to wear my glasses, which does create problems. Always chosen last. And “PE” in those horrible horrible horrible snap up the front gymsuit things was, to use Hallie’s perfect word, torture.
I was a pretty good horseback rider, I have to say, back in the day. And I could actually ice skate pretty well, strangely. And I was in all the plays–that kind of team sport I could do.
LUCY BURDETTE: I regret that there weren’t sports for girls when I was growing up, but girls did dancing and cheerleading. Boys played the sports. In another world, our daughter Molly was a very talented athlete with a lot of options. She played soccer and lacrosse, and then lacrosse for UC Berkeley. Her kids are not as driven, which I think is a disappointment, or at least a puzzle. John and I had lots of fun watching Thea play soccer last time we visited. Her team won their first tournament, and as you can see in the photo, she was thrilled.
DEBS: So cute! And that trophy is enormous!
JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I straddled the Title IX era - it was passed when I was in grade school, but the tiny and always underfunded rural school I went to after we came back from Germany couldn’t support many teams. There was field hockey for girls, which I played with zest, and I was in the ski club, which started a life-long passion for alpine skiing. I skated a LOT, both in Germany, and in upstate NY, and when Mom married Dad and we moved to the Finger Lakes, I got my boating and sailing licenses. I still sail whenever and wherever I can.
Other than that… not so much, and I’ve had to be grudgingly driven to exercise for my health. Ross loved riding (his parents were both professional equestrians) and racket sports. We used to joke we had to-the-manor born tastes in sports and a living-in-the-hovel income.
DEBS: I'll bet there are a lot of younger women who don't realize that girls weren't offered the opportunity to play sports. We take things for granted so quickly.
What about you, dear readers, guys and girls? Did you grow up playing sports? Was being part of team important?
I didn't play sports, wasn't part of a team. Instead, I danced. Our girls both were ice skaters . . . .
ReplyDeleteMy high school had softball, volleyball, and swim teams for girls, but I wasn't interested. I took ballet for many years and was a cheerleader at the end of high school. When I went to Brazil for a year at 17, I learned to play soccer, and at college we would have co-ed pick-up games on the lawn.
ReplyDeleteMy daughter-in-law played soccer into high school, and Ida Rose already has two soccer balls. Looking forward to that!
I might add that as an adult I have been active. I ran daily for years, earned a black belt in karate, cross-country skied whenever I could, hiked, and danced. Now I walk 11-12k steps a day and am grateful I still can, because the rest of it is over. I miss XX skiing the most, but my arthritic toe and stiff hips have ruled that out.
DeleteMy mother was an athlete in the 1930s in Alabama, to the sorrow of her mother. She was naturally gifted at tennis, basketball, and baseball. She rode horses and was a good shot. She won every sort of prize and the other kids nicknamed her "Mike," because she was so good at boy things. She was known as Mike McDonald when she married and was called Mike until she decided at 48 to go back to her real name. Mom taught my younger sister and me to throw and catch and to shoot baskets. Outside of school we were on swim teams, tennis teams, and softball teams. Our oldest sister was hopeless at sports but our grandmother finally had her little girl who loved to sew and knit. I had decent hand-eye coordination and always won those Presidential Fitness Awards patches (remember them?) but I didn't CARE about sports, I'd rather read and daydream. I play no sports today. It was our younger sister who was really like our mother athletically. Not only talented but with incredible drive. Jane broke every record at our elementary school and was shaping to be a track star in high school. Unfortunately in the early 1970s this was not cool so she quit and became a cheerleader and party girl instead. This derailed her for a long, long time, to her regret. Today at 65 she's still a fierce tennis competitor and her own daughters played sports year round and won running scholarships to the U.S. Naval Academy. (Selden)
ReplyDeleteI finished school long before Title IX. I was extremely skinny and not well coordinated, so in grammar school I was always chosen last. But, as a teen I danced modern dance and stuck with that through my 20's. I was a good swimmer, too, and up to just a couple years ago, was still swimming for exercise. My coordination improved immensely with the dance. In my 20's I took Karate lessons and dressage. I always loved horses. I continued to ride into my 30's and still did occasionally for years. We also skied every winter, something that I loved. .
ReplyDeleteIrwin played baseball through high school. He took up tennis and skiing and skating as an adult and was a very strong and competitive tennis player. In the winter, we spent lots of family time skiing and skating.
Jonathan is very well coordinated. He took Karate from age 5 and got his junior black belt at 13. He still dabbles in Marshall arts. In college, he was on the fencing team. We had him on skates and skis as soon as he was out of diapers. As a toddler, he was not thrilled, but we explained that this is what our family does in the winter. He played hockey until age 11 when the size difference between him and other skaters made it too dangerous. I let him decide whether to keep playing or not and was relieved when he gave it up. He played soccer for a long time, earning money as a ref for kid's games.
Rachel was a natural, strong and capable. When she was with us she also skied and I believe she was on her high school tennis team. Her boys are great athletes.
Our grandsons are all very active. Rachel's sons are very athletic, catching on quickly to every sport. The oldest is a competitive runner who is already competing in national meets. The younger one still plays a few sports, but is mostly settling into soccer. Jonathan's son swims all year. He also takes Karate lessons and has fun skiing. He has not shown the patience for team sports and with his temperament, he might never be one to join a team. We'll see.
I was a book nerd, so if we can call being on the debating team, than yeah, I played sports, otherwise, the only sports and team I was on was when we had gym.
ReplyDeleteBecause I 1) possess the Y chromosome, and 2) have all the athletic ability of a dead marmot by the side of the road (like Dru Ann, I was on the debate team), I really have no business speaking on this topic, but I will because I have daughters and granddaughters and friends of the double X persuasion. I fully support Title IX. I fully support the smashing of the glass ceiling. I fully support the right of every person to achieve the highest goal possible. And, yes, I fully support the right of trans people to participate in sports. I do not support mealy-mouth politicians and the so-called righteous who work to deny any human being of trying to reach their potential.
ReplyDeleteI was the least sporty girl you can imagine. Always picked last for teams, unless the captain was a good friend. Phys. ed. was the worst - except for gymnastics, which I enjoyed. My PE teacher was shocked, years later, when she discovered one of the sportiest girls was my daughter. Obviously she didn't get the sporty gene from me.
ReplyDeleteDebs, don't you find that 10 year old girls are simply the best? At that age my granddaughter was more mature than either of her parents. For the most part it didn't last but while it lasted there was nothing better.