A coach’s perspective: Prop 134 protects girls who are afraid to join

By Robert Sencenbaugh | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice

To begin, sports can be a vital experience for all students. Studies have shown, many times over, that participation in sports provides substantial benefits both physically and mentally. According to the Women’s Sports Foundation (founded by Billie Jean King in 1974) for girls specifically, research continually shows that sports improve girl’s physical and mental health as well as academic achievement. 

Perhaps, more importantly, in this day of social media, sports also increase girls’ levels of self-confidence and body esteem. Some indications from research also find that the benefits of sports participation are even greater for girls than boys. I have seen these benefits not only in my players but in my own experiences in playing sports.

As a coach, my greatest difficulty was not in teaching girls how to dribble or pass or even shoot. The greatest difficulty was in getting them to join. For many of my players, this was the first time in their lives that they were participating in any sort of organized sports. 

The fear of failure or looking stupid was very real to my students. I watched girls jump down all sorts of rabbit holes trying to find a reason not to join.  

Recently, one of those fears has been playing with or against a male student. We have girls in this state who will not even start sports because they do not feel that they may be safe physically and emotionally. 

I quickly learned in my first year of coaching that most girls play sports for much different reasons than boys. More than 95% of my players were playing because they liked being a part of a team and making friends. This was their main motivation. Not stats, not glory. Not even winning was a primary motivation, although they did enjoy occasionally getting to stop off for fast food when we won or had a good game. 

The mental and emotional motivations that players bring with them to sports are different between boys and girls. This has also been studied and is supported with research. My own personal experiences as a coach and a player just reinforce this.

I understand that people want to be empathic. Adolescence can be a very difficult time for anybody. Trying to out figure who you are and where you fit is hard. I doubt I am the only person here who had nights during middle school crying into a pillow. 

However, we have to ask ourselves, is our empathy coming from trying to right wrongs done to ourselves or is it truly altruistic? By not passing this measure, how many girls will we lose? How many girls will never get the opportunities to experience all the benefits that sports provide?

I had two tenets in my classroom. It was easier than having a bunch of rules scattered all over the room and gave students the opportunity to reason and think about their actions. The first tenet was their education. The second tenet was their safety, both physical and emotional. 

If students were doing something that was taking from their own or others’ education or if they were doing something that was unsafe emotionally or physically, that was going to be an issue. 

I write this today because of these tenets. We need to make sure that all of our students are safe emotionally and physically. We need to provide a safe environment both physically and emotionally for all the girls of our state. 

In so doing, we will also be providing benefits to their education and their futures. Let us not end it before it even begins.

Editor’s note: Opinions expressed in commentary pieces are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the management of the Rocky Mountain Voice, but even so we support the constitutional right of the author to express those opinions.