Women and Professional Football: Taking sports to a new level

                                                                     (Carley Pesente)

Most people never hear about women playing professional football. I personally have never heard about professional football teams for women. If asked I probably would have given the typical answer when it comes to women and football, they don’t mix well. A few years ago, I heard about a girl who was playing football and after she walked off the field she collapsed and died because she wasn’t built for taking hits that they do in football.

            Carley Pesente, owner of the Northeastern Nitro Women’s Professional Football Team in the Women’s Football Alliance and also a linebacker for the same team has been playing women’s tackle football for 13 years (Hill, 2011).  When asked, “Have you been passionate about sports your entire life and if so, how did you zero in on what sports you wanted to take to the professional level?”

Carley replies,” Sports is my life. I have been playing some kind of sport for most of my life…”(Hill, 2011)

Carley also says that she is fueled to excel as a woman athlete because women have always been told that competition is for boys and until 1972 the opportunities for women in sports was limited, but now she has the chance to show little girls that they can do and be anything they want (Hill, 2011).

This touches my heart because even though now women have better opportunities we still aren’t anywhere near to the point where we should be satisfied.

Little girls are the future for women and professional sports and if women in professional sports now want to show the women of the future that anything is possible, then the future can only get better for them.

Hill, M.(2011, March 10) Women’s Professional Football: Interview with team owner Carley Pesente. Sports Networker. Retrieved March 13, 2011 from http://www.sportsnetworker.com/2011/03/10/womens-professional-football-interview-with-team-owner-carley-pesente/

Mendoza Chooses Professional Softball Team over National Team: This is a huge step forward for professional softball

           

           When you play a sport you usually grow up idealizing someone who is playing that sport also. I play softball and I loved to watch Jessica Mendoza because we both played outfield. Even after growing up I idealize Mendoza even though she stopped playing for a while. She is an amazing player, she tries her best at everything she does and you can tell that her passion is softball.

She puts everything she has into softball whether she is playing or just commentating on the College World Series. I learned a lot from watching and listening to her, not only about softball but about life. I learned that as a team you need to have some give and pull and not have to be in control of everything. I also learned that if you are going to play, then give it your all so that at the end even if you don’t win you still feel that you did all you could.

Mendoza is the Women’s Sports Foundation President, a commentator during the College World Series, an athletic ambassador for Team Darfur and a board member of the National Education Association. She continually tries to take softball to the next level by promoting the sport all the time. She is my hero.

            Recently Jessica Mendoza and seven other players from the Beijing Olympics have decided not to play on the United States softball team and will instead play on teams for the professional league.

“Times have changed, and unfortunately we’re no longer in the Olympic program, but I think that this is what’s going to be the future of softball,” Lauren Lappin (Thomas, 2011).

Ever since the softball has been kicked out of the Olympic program the United States Olympic Committee cut its financing for softball’s national governing body, which in turn eliminated its stipends for national team players (Thomas, 2011). 

 “For our pro league to be successful, something like this has to happen,” commented Mendoza on the National League asking players to commit to a series of international competitions that would have interfered with the professional schedule (Thomas, 2011).

Since a lot of the bigger names have committed to play on the pro league, Commissioner Cheri Kempf expects the league to grow. Currently, there are only 4 teams from Florida, Illinois, Ohio and Tennessee and they currently do not have a television contract. The salary for a pro league player currently only can go up to $150,000, but Mendoza said players normally earn between $8,000 to $50,000 per season. A season normally runs only from June until August.

“We’ve made a lot of fans out of nonsayers that not only believe a woman can play softball, but don’t believe a woman can play sports,” Mendoza (Thomas, 2011).

Personally, I cannot wait to see what comes out of this for softball as a sport. As a player of the sport it is very exciting to see your sport rise to another level.

Thomas, K. (2011, January).  Players pick pro league over the national team. New York Times. Retrieved on February 19, 2011, from Gale Opposing Viewpoints in Context Databas

New Skiing Event for Women in the Olympics?

        
    

            There has been talk about possibly adding a new event for women in the next Winter Olympics. It is skiing on half pipes and through obstacle filled courses. Women, who do this kind of skiing, have to compete against men because there are no female competitions.  It is not fair to not have just a men’s competition and expect the women either to not compete or to compete against the men. I think it is great that everyone has come to realize this and have decided to change instead of just ignoring it.

          The possibility of new Olympic this new ski event to the Winter Olympics is in the news: Olympic women’s teams are doing trial runs at the moment but the IOC President, Jacques Rogge, is expected to make a decision come April. "I'm really excited. It's something I've been pushing for a long time," says Burke, who is a skier herself in this event (Edgy, 2011).

Jen Hudak, an X games contender who won gold in ski half pipe last year says, “[B]eing a dangerous sport, I think girls need more of that motivation to really get out there and charge," (Edgy, 2011).

Hopefully we will see this sport for women when we watch the Winter Olympics in 2014 from Sochi, Russia.

In high school, I witnessed women having to play on a men’s team in sports, such as soccer and football, because they didn’t have a women’s team. Instead of thinking that maybe they could change and have a women’s team they just ignore the fact that the women have to play with the men. In my mind, this is how it has always been but I am hopeful enough that in the future things will change and people will realize this cannot go on any longer.

                                              

Edgy ski events getting trial run.”2011,1”Edgy ski events getting trial run.USA Today. Retrieved February 6, 2011, from the World Wide Web. http://metalib.vccs.edu:2048/V/GV8QBU8KFP6TU5VE818LIS74XXRT6B9IBKPQATQBEH7HC46BJ4-11338?func=quick-3&short-format=002&set_number=001969&set_entry=000003&format=999

Women and More Professional Sports

Ever since I was 5 years old I have been playing softball. My parents have, not forced me, per se, but wanted me to explore other sports like most parents do with their children. I have played soccer and basketball, done vaulting, which is gymnastics on horses, done gymnastics, ballet, jazz and tap like most little girls. I fell in love with softball though and have never thought of not playing.

Then, I hit my senior year of high school and knew that I was not going to be able to, at first, go to a college where I would be able to play softball and this freaked me out. I thought, “Oh my goodness, how can I not play softball? It’s been my life for 13 years!” This got me started thinking about how boys get to go on and play professional sports for the rest of their lives if they wanted. Yes, women have basketball, soccer and tennis as professional sports, but men have baseball, basketball, hockey, soccer, tennis and football.  I cannot wait to see when women have a wide variety of professional sports like the men do.