Girls, Team Sports, and Benefits

Since she was a little kid, sports have been a great part of her life. They have given her opportunities to what she loves, basketball, and also to meet new people. Sports have changed 11th grader Isabela Murillo’s life; they have made her a better person, gave her more confidence, and have helped her become a better team player. She is now team captain and the star player of her team. Team sports greatly affect TCS girls as their participation helps them build their character, self esteem, and other important life skills. Getting involved in team sports will help young girls in their life in and outside of school and for their future.

Girls are greatly influenced during their young years by all the things that they experience. Everything that they are taught, shown, or told will have an effect on their future, personality and even their behavior. Parental figures, teachers, and friends will have an effect on all of these aspects of a girl’s life. While participating on team sports girls will have one of the most influential people they could have in their life be part of it, their coaches. They act as parental figures while they teach important life skills and lessons. Like Paige Maslen says, “Coaches in particular can play an important role in a young athlete’s life. Players who have positive sports mentors when they’re young are also more likely to seek effective role models throughout their life.” When girls participate in team sports they will gain experiences and important contacts that will help them in the future.

Not only will young girls meet a parental figure but they will be able to meet other athletes who could later become great friends. Social skills are greatly developed during girls participation in team sports like soccer, basketball, and others. Working as a team shows girls the importance of teamwork, being united, making unselfish decisions, and acting on behalf of the team and what the main goal is. “A team never depends on only one person, they all have to work together and that starts off the field,” says Hernan Arango, girls soccer coach. “They need to know each other well and have respect for them.”

Team sports have also shown how they help girls with self-esteem, make their levels of confidence higher and make them feel good about what they look like. A team environment makes girls have to be with other people who are very different from each other physically and also on their personalities. Girls will have to get out of their shells to be in community and to show who they really are and have no fear about people saying things about them. “At some point in my life I really cared about what people said but as I grew up I learned it wasn’t their place to decide if I was happy or not and started caring about myself,” mentions Murillo. “Sports really helped because they gave me confidence.”

Girls participation in team sports develops important skills that will later on be helpful in their life. It is important for them to participate even if they don’t think that they are able to, at the end it will be rewarding. We might think that it is not as important but actually team sports will not only give girls important life skills but also will help them improve academically, make them healthy and will help reduce the risk of certain diseases. Giving girls the opportunity to play is important, you will give them many things with one.