Before the game, I entertained myself by making small talk with a mother of one of the players on Scarborough's team. She was happy and nervous for her son, as I was for his coach, and after a few minutes of talking she expressed a level of excitement for something much larger than her son's game that night. She shared that her son was a three sport athlete... playing football, lacrosse and basketball most of his life. Though to my recollection he was a strong athlete all-around, she explained that he had always been much more focused on growing his skill in regards to the first two. That he spent countless hours outside of practice, since he was young, perfecting spirals and catching fly balls so that he would stand out among his peers. Where as with basketball, he simply joined because his father was in love with the sport and he could spend another season with his friends, but the passion for improvement was never there.
She said this dedication was most definitely linked to the fact that Scarborough, the town he grew up in, had countless State titles in both football and lacrosse. For years he went to these high school games and watched the older boys, that he grew up playing with, go on to succeed and bring pride to the town. I immediately related to this and couldn't help but realize, as I sat down for the game, that I too chose tennis and cheering as a child because the girls I grew up with had won countless championships before me. In fact, even my parents, wanting me to succeed, encouraged me to join these particular sports because of the success that my school had and therefore the strength of those programs in regards to nurturing my talent.
When the halftime buzzer rang, my mind wandered back to this idea. When I was young, the individuals I most looked up to were women who were confident and successful. I was lucky enough to have a mother who was a Sergeant Major, so the glass ceiling was not a relevant barrier in my young mind. If at 6 years old the sports I chose were so heavily based on the success I could picture for myself at 15 or 16. Then the careers I chose at 16 were most definitely based on the women I knew of having success in particular roles at 30+.
This mother had expressed how amazing it was, to her and the other parents in Scarborough, that the boys basketball team had made it to States that year. Not just because they had worked hard all season, but because all of the children in the stands who were currently in the feeder programs were able to watch the high school kids they looked up to succeed. Her son watched this team lose game after game when he was young and that completely changed the motivation he had for pursuing the sport.
When children look ahead they should able to find a women or man with a background they can relate to pursuing a future that they can aspire to themselves. Women in STEM roles inspire young girls to spend time out of the classroom making robots, it can be as simple as that. Though there are still many industries that do not have all genders and nationalities represented in their top-level positions, there is a way to change that. If you sit today unable to find someone like you in a position that you want, then you have to be that someone for the child behind you.
Encourage your children to play the sports and pursue the careers where no one like them them has succeeded before. This will not only teach them remarkable life skills, but it could allow them to set a precedent for generations of young minds after them.
