When I played recreation league sports when I was a kid I remember my soccer league as being a co-ed league from around age four to around age eight. Since there were not as many kids playing in total the boys and girls were paired together in their respective age groups. Since soccer was one of the only sports I could play at that time we played outdoor soccer in both the spring and fall, and then played indoor in the winter. We had separate teams in our outdoor league and then took a "all-star" team into the indoor league. As I said earlier, there were multiple girls in the outdoor league, but there was always three or four girls who made our all-star team. In fact, one of the girls was one of our best players. Also, in the indoor league we played in, there was an all girl team that played. It was cool to have things mixed together at that age and I think it gave me a different perspective on sport and gender.
I think that I would have liked to play volleyball had I been female. I had enjoyed watching the sport through high school and played quite a bit of recreational volleyball. I think what I like about the sport is the athleticism and teamwork. You have to be athletic to play the sport because you are constantly moving and jumping, and also have to rotate to play a variety of positions. Teamwork certainly comes into play when setting the ball in hopes of getting a point. There has to be a lot of trust and chemistry as well because sometimes you have to know where somebody will be without seeing them.
Brett,
ReplyDeleteI had a slightly different experience from you when it comes to youth soccer. Where I’m from there were not any co-ed teams, even at a young age. I played youth soccer throughout elementary school and it was always a team filled with boys who were my best friends. Soccer was fairly popular where I’m from so I think that there weren’t any co-ed teams because girls could easily fill teams. Looking back, it would have been interesting to see how the girls competed with the boys and if there was any difference in skill at such a young age. In elementary school people grow at a different rate, so some girls were probably bigger than boys! I remember in 3rd or 4th grade there was one girl who could easily do 35 pull ups in gym class and the boys could not even come close. The best boy could only do like 15, but here a girl is able to do 35. I remember all of the boys in the class, myself included, were upset that we got beat by a girl. I imagine that soccer might have some similar experiences.
If I would have been a girl then I think I would have liked to swim, play volleyball or do gymnastics. Those three sports were often branded as “girl” sports among my area and friends. Looking back now, some of the best athletes, such as Michael Phelps, participated in these sports. These sports were popular among girls in my school, so it’s something that I likely would have enjoyed doing because I always wanted to play sports with my friends. I agree with you when you say that volleyball would be fun because it would a sport that requires teamwork and athleticism.
Brian Kochheiser
Brett,
ReplyDeleteI am in the same situation that Brian was in. When I was young there wasn't really any sports that I participated in that consisted of playing with girls. All of the teams that I played on consisted only of guys. I also think that is would have been cool to play with girls when I was younger and to be able to compete against them.
If I think about it, if I was born a girl I would have liked to participate in gymnastics. It is something that requires a lot of concentration and hard work to master. I think that it is an incredibly competitive sport that is very hard to work your way to the pinnacle of the sport itself. I know for a fact that there is a lot of things that they are capable of that I can never imagine being able to do.
-Chris Lang
Brett,
ReplyDeleteWhen I was younger I was in a similar situation as you were. I started playing soccer in the fall before I turned four and it was a co-ed league. We were fully integrated and I never realized that it was a weird thing to be playing with boys and girls. I started playing on my first really organized team when I was 7 and that team was all girls. I didn’t really think much of it until I realized boys were practicing with their team near us and we did not play with them at all. I agree with you also about the how playing with both genders gave me a different perspective on the sport and gender issues. Since that age, I have never been “afraid” to play boys in sports nor have I ever thought of gender as something that should really hold such a weight in the area of sports.
Nicole Zawislan
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ReplyDeleteBrett,
ReplyDeleteAlthough it didn't play youth soccer, my situation in youth sports was very similar to yours. I played football, baseball, and hockey at the youth level and the very first teams I played on in all of those sports had females on them. I never really noticed that anything was different or unusual about them being on the team because the coaches treated them as equals, and the coaches set the example that the team followed. I agree with you when you said that it was a good experience to have gender mixed early in sports and that it gives you a different perspective. I think playing sports with both boys and girls at such a young age helped me to understand that gender is not the most important attribute when playing a sport, it is simply how well you can compete.
-Travis Kash