Sports and Learning

The Role of Sports at NCGS Member Schools

By Carolyn Colletti, NCGS

Originally published in Independent School Magazine

 

Go on, admit it. There's a part of you that yearns to go tearing down the snow-covered slopes like an Olympic champion. Or maybe your dreams of sports stardom take you to the summer fields of the baseball diamond, or the green links of the golf course, or the cool ice of the skating rink.

 

What is this impulse to play - to compete and achieve - and what role does it take on within the educational missions of today's independent schools?

 

Certainly, as educators, we wish for all students to be physically fit in the years they spend in our schools. At the National Coalition of Girls' Schools (NCGS), we are keenly aware that participation in sports can yield enduring benefits for girls and young women. But fitness is only the beginning. We can tap into this impulse, make it a part of the educational experience to both impart and reinforce skills that will empower girls and young women for a lifetime - whether one becomes a pro athlete or a parent, a scientist or a songwriter, a corporate executive or a community leader.

 

There are myriad reasons to view sports not merely as a footnote to the school day, but rather in the wider context of a school's overarching educational objectives.

 

"Sports are not a diversion but rather an extension of a good educational program," says Betty White, head of Sacred Hearts Academy (Hawaii). Dorothy J. McCrea, principal of Mercy High School in San Francisco, agrees. "The athletic teams must be an extension of the classroom and, ultimately, the mission of the school," McCrea says.

 

A Cultural Transformation

For many girls and young women in America's school system, it wasn't always this way. Athletics were too often considered the domain of boys and men. As a result, girls programs - if they were to be found at all - were underfunded and little supported.

 

Then in 1972, the passage of Title IX marked a breakthrough moment, when girls' sports went from a near- afterthought to a front-and-center feature worthy of the same attention and respect traditionally paid to boys' sports. And although Title IX addressed problems at schools receiving federal funding, even private single-sex schools, where opportunities generally were more prevalent, benefited from the new electricity in the air. Title IX was the flashpoint for a cultural movement - a cultural transformation, really - and in the years since its passage, participation and interest in girls' and women's sports has soared.

 

For example, among high school females alone, the participation rate is up some 847 percent, according to the Women's Sports Foundation. In 1972, one in 27 high school girls played varsity sports. By 2001, one in every twoand- a-half did so, and the numbers have continued to climb.

 

"In the area of competitive athletics, women's sports have certainly taken off," agrees Nancy T. Muegle, director of communications at Roland Park Country School (Maryland). "We offer 15 varsity sports, up from five sports a decade ago. And more and more students participate in competitive athletics - 85 percent of middle school students and 75 percent of upper school students."

 

Similarly, at Greenwich Academy (Connecticut), the range of sports offerings has tripled over the past 30 years, according to Mary Lou Evans, director of communications. "It's a response to ongoing feedback from an increasingly diverse student body," Evans says.

 

At each step of the way since Title IX, the benefits of sports participation have become increasingly clear. Benefits such as:

 

Fitness for life: Sports develop girls' strength, flexibility, balance, and body control - whether by serving a tennis ball, walking the balance beam, tossing the javelin, or shooting a basket. "Every girl can think of herself as an athlete, just as she is encouraged to think of herself as a scientist, and starting from that premise makes all the difference," according to Priscilla Sands, head of Springside School (Pennsylvania). "It demonstrates to girls that taking care of their bones, their hearts, their minds, and their whole selves is a lifelong enterprise."

 

Self-esteem and confidence: Sports bring positive self-images to girls while their bodies grow and change. During adolescence, it is normal for girls to gain extra pounds, at a time when they are often influenced by unrealistic images of females in the media. Being active helps girls control their weight and feel more at peace with their bodies. "Athletics can help girls focus on what their bodies can do as opposed to what their bodies are 'supposed to look like' based on media images," says Lois Miller, director of athletics at Roland Park Country School (Maryland).

 

Strategic thinking: Sports teach girls that winning and losing are equally valuable experiences. On the field or in the gym, girls discover that problem-solving contributes to success. In losing, girls learn not to fault themselves but to change their strategy. "Success is not defined by a team's win-loss record," says Kippie Crouch, athletic director and chair of the health and physical education department at Columbus School for Girls (Ohio). "While winning certainly makes for happier faces, there are many important lessons to be learned through sports participation."

 

Interdependence: Team sports teach girls how to be self-reliant while drawing upon the strengths of others. Girls learn how to ask for and give help to teammates. They learn how to work competitively classroom," according to Cathy LaDuke, athletic director at Chatham Hall (Virginia). "A student-athlete will be disciplined about studying. She will have a strong sense of how to set and achieve goals. And she will have a clear understanding of what it takes to work well with others."

 

Determination and perseverance: Sports teach girls how to push beyond and transcend limitations - both physically and mentally. "They have to figure out how to work hard for something that they've set as a goal," says Denise Adorante, director of athletics at The Spence School (New York). "They're getting feedback from coaches and teammates, and they have to figure out how to take in that constructive criticism without succumbing to the pressure to be perfect that girls so often feel. Not become defensive, but put that criticism to work to improve her own performance. This is where the growth process, the maturity, starts to happen."

 

The Need to Compete

As schools have ramped-up their athletics programs, adding new activities and building new facilities, many have also noted a change in the attitude among students. While almost all schools still maintain "no-cut" programs where everyone gets a chance to swing a bat or move the ball downcourt, many girls and young women are craving more intense competition. They want more games where the emphasis is on winning, according to Jez McIntosh, director of athletics and chair of the fitness/wellness program at Castilleja School (California).

 

"What we're seeing today is that girls arrive here in the sixth grade looking for challenges. They've developed a competitive edge at a younger age than they did five or six years ago," McIntosh says. "And so that's the next task for us: maintaining the opportunity- based athletic programs, where everyone gets a chance to participate and enjoy the game, while providing the sort of competitive, "hate to lose" environment that more and more girls have come to expect."

 

McIntosh sees this new interest as healthy, and also as a natural outcome of girls' schools' long emphasis on instilling self-confidence.

 

"They use the same skills they've acquired to be disciplined students and bring them to the playing field, to become disciplined athletes. They want to work hard because they're accustomed to that," McIntosh says. "They know what it means to embrace a challenge and they want the reward, the satisfaction that comes with winning. So, by creating an athletics program culture that embraces competition and the desire to be the best, we can really explode some old myths about girls and competitiveness."

 

It's a trend other schools are noticing -- and welcoming.

 

"Winning at all costs is certainly not the sole focus," according to Sheila Miller, director of athletics at Buffalo Seminary (New York). "But with a commitment to personal- and team-best, winning certainly has a way of falling into place."

 

And a winning attitude may be the single best tool schools can provide. "If you've done sports and can carry those lessons with you throughout life, you know there is always a way to get the job done, whatever the job may be," according to Meg Milne Moulton, NCGS co-executive drector. "You learn a resourcefulness, a drive to achieve, no matter what the challenges are."

 

Get Your Game Face On

For nearly a decade now, NCGS has been a partner in The Game Face Project, a multi-media feature designed to inspire - or, as we're fond of saying, "awaken the inner athlete" - so that all girls share in the growing excitement about sports and physical fitness.

 

We first met Jane Gottesman, the project creator, in 1998. Back then, she had an idea for a book of photographs that would document girls and women's achievements in sports in the era of Title IX. That simple idea has since blossomed to include not only a book but also a multi-part educational package featuring a museum quality photographic exhibit, a traveling version of the exhibit for use in schools, and a classroom kit featuring lesson plans, posters, and discussion cards all focused on leadership, determination, and perseverance.

 

"The Game Face tools help us create exactly the kind of dynamic feedback between playing field and classroom that our schools are seeking," said Whitney Ransome, NCGS co-executive director. "By highlighting the many skills and lessons that are universal across a schools' educational mission, sports can be a sort of 'meta-metaphor,' useful in history classes, language arts and writing, health and family, even mathematics."

 

To date, NCGS has helped send the traveling show to more than 20 schools all over the country. Even the Green Bay Packers, in collaboration with a local hospital, have booked the show for a local event. It seems clear to us that this trend, of rising interest in sports for girls and women, is a long way from peaking.

 

In fact, at many girls' schools, the emphasis is shifting from merely expanding athletics and fitness programs to actually integrating them into the core school experience. Girls' Preparatory School (Tennessee) has added an addendum to its mission statement. Called "Portrait of a Graduate," the addendum lists the qualities a young woman is expected to demonstrate upon completion of her studies. Top among them: "A GPS graduate should exhibit a commitment to a lifestyle of healthy choices."

 

The Winsor School (Massachusetts) has created a full, five-member task force charged with integrating wellness themes across all disciplines, with a beginning emphasis on relaxation techniques to reduce stress and improve performance, whether on the ballfield or in the lecture hall. "We have had a lot of successes this year, " Karen Geromini, Winsor's director of athletics and chair of the physical education department, says. "The girls' focus has sharpened, practices run better, we're more productive. And I've had players tell me that they've applied that same mind-set in the classroom as they get ready to take a test, even at home to clear their minds and get a better night's sleep."

 

It is just this sort of institution-wide approach that is required, according to educators who have undertaken it. "Our athletic department works closely with the other departments in the school to ensure that our athletes can be true 'scholar athletes,'" says Sue Bosland, head of Kent Place School (New Jersey). "All the teachers and coaches work together to schedule and accommodate all requirements of a strong educational experience. This has happened over several years of carefully tweaking the schedule and calendar to be fair to everyone - most importantly, the girls, so they aren't being pulled in too many directions at once."

 

Athletes... scholars... leaders. As educators and advocates, we do want today's girls and young women to have access to it all. We gauge outcomes not only by the students' achievements, but by how well we have done our job of providing the framework and context for a quality educational experience, one in which well-being and rigorous learning are increasingly intertwined.

 

What is the measure of our success? In the end, it may be really quite simple, according to Steve O'Dell, community relations coordinator for the Hutchison School in Memphis, Tennessee. "A healthy student is a happy student," O'Dell says. "And a happy student is successful student."

 

Photo credits: Miss Porter's School