{"id":70939,"date":"2021-03-08T12:56:36","date_gmt":"2021-03-08T17:56:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=70939"},"modified":"2021-03-19T10:43:28","modified_gmt":"2021-03-19T14:43:28","slug":"women-in-sport-aims-to-inspire-next-generation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2021\/03\/women-in-sport-aims-to-inspire-next-generation\/","title":{"rendered":"Women in Sport aims to inspire next generation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite having plenty to celebrate after a banner pre-pandemic season, Brock University\u2019s female student-athletes marked International Women\u2019s Day not by highlighting their own accolades, but by taking steps to inspire and uplift the next generation.<\/p>\n

Monday, March 8 marked the global celebration of women\u2019s achievements and the ongoing rally for equality. At Brock University, it meant another opportunity to speak of continued efforts to empower female student-athletes on campus.<\/p>\n

Brock\u2019s women\u2019s teams were deemed a force to be reckoned with in the 2019-20 season. Badger fans filled Bob Davis Gymnasium to cheer on the women\u2019s wrestling team for their ninth consecutive national championship; the women\u2019s basketball team earned a cult following as they packed opposing gyms during their road playoff games on their way to the U SPORTS gold medal match; and the women\u2019s volleyball team made school history with a provincial silver medal and a trip to nationals, tragically cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Brock Sports, which includes 25 women\u2019s teams, celebrated International Women\u2019s Day on Monday, March 8. Pictured from left are Brock student-athletes Melanie Schouten (soccer), Loramhel Mateo (rugby), Jenna Rainville (rugby), Marilena Spagnolo (soccer), Cassandra Stirpe (soccer) and Autumn Gervais (rugby).<\/p><\/div>\n

That momentum continued in the fall with the launch of a Brock Women in Sport group meant to foster a supportive space for student-athletes, coaches and staff to grow female leadership in sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe as a group want to make a difference now so young girls can confidently know they have opportunities and can make their career dreams a reality,\u201d said women\u2019s hockey player Paige Cohoon, a fourth-year Teacher Education student and Women in Sport committee member. \u201cWe\u2019re working towards a day when a young girl can aspire to be anything she wants to be without there being limitations because of her gender.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group meets online monthly and has covered topics such as building a positive team culture, body image and mental health, and building equity in sport. In addition to several Brock faculty members, guest speakers so far have included Olympic figure skater Kirsten Moore-Towers, former Brock Assistant Athletic Director and coach Chris Critelli, St. Francis Xavier University women\u2019s basketball coach Lee Anna Osei and Niagara College Athletic Director and former Canada Basketball President Michele O\u2019Keefe.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe created the Women in Sport group to provide additional support, leadership, development and inspiration for our female student-athletes, to help them recognize all the exceptional attributes they have and how to harness them to move forward effectively in the world,\u201d said Emily Allan, Interim Director of Brock Sports.<\/p>\n

The group has affirmed for Amber Briar that \u201cyou don\u2019t have to act and look a certain way to excel in a sport that you love.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were always more boys than girls in my fencing classes while growing up, but now society is moving towards equal participation,\u201d said the second-year Kinesiology student, who is also a para-athlete on Brock\u2019s fencing team and a Women in Sport committee member. \u201cI\u2019m overjoyed. Especially as a para-fencer, I feel so lucky to able to be a part of the movement in promoting para-sports and seeing powerful women excel in the environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brock alumnus Helen Henderson (BA \u201975, BEd \u201976, BPE \u201976) knows first-hand how female leadership in sport can change one\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

A dual-sport athlete in basketball and volleyball, Henderson had the distinguished honour of being named Brock University\u2019s first Female Athlete of the Year in 1973.<\/p>\n

Henderson said the athletic accolades she garnered while competing in women\u2019s sports at Brock, including a one-year stint in rowing, played a pivotal role in the outcome of her career.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why I was able to get a teaching job and start coaching right out of university,\u201d she said. \u201cBeing involved in athletics at Brock provided all these pathways for me to gain a reputation in the community. It\u2019s always nice when we go over to Brock to show my grandkids my name on the wall.\u201d<\/p>\n

Henderson became a secondary school teacher and coach for 33 years with the District School Board of Niagara. She also served as an assistant coach of the women\u2019s volleyball team at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia for three seasons during a teacher exchange program.<\/p>\n

Now a Niagara Falls retiree, Henderson is also the Indoor Sports Lead for wrestling, lacrosse and volleyball for the Niagara 2022 Canada Games.<\/p>\n

She applauds the Badgers for launching the Women in Sport group.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s an admirable endeavour to help motivate young women and get them to think outside the box,\u201d she said. \u201cIf we had something like that in our time, it would have given female student-athletes something to aspire to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Henderson has watched the sports landscape evolve over the years and is enthusiastic about women\u2019s future in sports with various emerging role models.<\/p>\n

\u201cSports have been my whole life. I\u2019ve seen females transcend various sports networks, females who\u2019ve broken the barrier in the men\u2019s world. They are refereeing at the Super Bowl or coaching in NBA games,\u201d she said. \u201cThis gives girls an outlet. They might think, \u2018if I don\u2019t make the national team or go pro, I could be a colour commentator, a referee or coach at a high level. Today, more than ever, we are witnessing history.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite having plenty to celebrate after a banner pre-pandemic season, Brock University\u2019s female student-athletes marked International Women\u2019s Day not by highlighting their own accolades, but by taking steps to inspire and uplift the next generation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":70949,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[119,36,40,7,1,4,58],"tags":[159,4437,1961,10061,2766,9493],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70939"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70939"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70951,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70939\/revisions\/70951"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}