Building Bridges through Sports

By John Lawrence

Special to the Gazette

At 8:30 Saturday morning, it is nine degrees outside, half a foot of snow has fallen since midnight. There are no people or plows in sight. The fresh snow makes the roads almost indistinguishable from the sidewalks and open stretches of field along the Charles.

Across the river, however, in Briggs Athletic Center, 30 female athletes from Harvard have gathered for a clinic to commemorate National Girls and Women in Sport Day. Their guests will be nearly 60 Boston-area girls from the Boston Youth Service Program.

The contrast provided by the peaceful winter snowscape outside is a striking one for the young girls from South Boston, Dorchester, and Orchard Park as they shuffle into the gymnasium, still shivering from the cold. Inside, Harvard students -- not much older than most of the girls -- spin multicolored tennis rackets in their hands and swat neon tennis balls back and forth. Women from the volleyball team, clad in crimson and black, are clapping rhythmically and shouting for the girls to join their group. Basketball players launch jump-shots and chase after rebounds.

Ebony Lewis, a 6-year-old from Orchard Park with a brand-new Harvard "Meet the Challenge" T-shirt hanging below her knees, eyes the scene sheepishly from the bleachers. "She insisted on coming," says her uncle, Bill Baxter. "Originally, we only let the girls in junior high sign up. But Ebony and her sister Tiffany [age 7] wouldn't stop asking me. I guess they'd heard about last year's sports day."

Together with the Boston Police Youth Service Program, the Harvard-Radcliffe Foundation for Women's Athletics and the University's Office of Government, Community and Public Affairs sponsored this second annual sports clinic for girls from neighboring Boston.

Approximately 60 girls, ages 6 to 14, came to enjoy a day of sports clinics and camaraderie, topped off by a pizza party and videos featuring women in sports. Harvard student-athletes and coaches from four sports -- basketball, softball, tennis, and volleyball -- worked together to conduct instructional clinics, answer questions, and offer encouragement and advice.

"Today, we want to celebrate women in sports and women in general," said Jenny Allard, Harvard's softball coach and one of the organizers of Saturday's events. "The main objective is for the girls of Boston to get to see Harvard and to meet the women who participate in athletics. It's important just to show them that the opportunity to participate exists and is available to them. And it's important to show them when they're young, so they can plan ahead. We want to be positive and very encouraging, to teach new skills and to answer any questions they have about what they need to do to come to college."

"I'd like the kids to get a good sense of the place, the aura of a college, being at Harvard," added Boston Police Officer John Ridge, who brought girls from the South End and Dorchester. "It's difficult to aspire to college if you have no idea what that means. We want to bring these kids to a university so they can see firsthand what the future could hold.

"We're trying to broaden their conceptions of the possibilities life can hold for them. These are the kinds of experiences middle-class kids take for granted. Today is about building bridges, bridges between Harvard women and girls from Boston, bridges to continued participation in sports, bridges to college, or to planning for college. We want them to have a positive experience in a college setting."

"The women of Harvard athletics -- at all levels -- have provided both inspiration and instruction through this valuable program," said Harvard director of community relations Kevin McCluskey. "We are very grateful for the commitment they have made to these girls."

By 10:30, the groups are seamless. The girls mix together with the Harvard athletes, holding hands, giving high-fives, cheering one another on and smiling. They are taught proper fielding technique -- learning to handle both pop-flies and grounders -- along with forehands and backhands in tennis, sets and serves in volleyball, and lay-ups and defense in basketball.

Ebony Lewis, once shy and a little afraid, becomes steely and focused with a tennis racket in her hand. She follows each successive solid forehand winner with little hops of joy, spinning in place. She doesn't walk or run so much as skip and dance from one activity to another, clapping her hands on her hips along the way.

"Half the point is just to come here and have fun, to get them excited about playing sports," explains Kate Roiter, a senior on the tennis team. "It's a good opportunity for the girls to see a variety of different sports in one day. The whole idea is to encourage the girls to participate in sports throughout the years they're in school, not just when they're young.

"Athletics are so important for building self-esteem. It's nice that they get to see that there are girls like them that are playing sports in college, and they get to ask us questions about what it takes to get here."

"The importance of female role models cannot be underestimated," says Pat Henry, senior associate director of athletics. "Girls generally don't receive the same type of encouragement to participate that boys do. This is one way of giving them that encouragement.

"Junior high is the crucial period. Studies show that it's the time when many girls begin to drop out of organized athletics. Other studies show that during the same period the self-esteem of many girls takes a huge plunge. We're just trying to do whatever we can to give them positive reinforcement and support."

When asked what she learned at the clinic, Tyiesha Burnett, an 11-year-old from South Boston, is emphatic, "I learned that if you work hard you can go to college. You just can. You can get financial aid and just go. I need to be good in school so I can get good grades and be able to get on a team."

At 1 o'clock, the sun is shining, the roads are clear, and the temperature is a balmy 21 degrees. The group from South Boston has returned to the gym to watch the women's basketball team practice. Occasionally, the girls shout to a new friend they've made, and they cheer as if a real game were going on.

"The girls had a ball coming here," says Officer Ridge, to a chorus of cheers. "They've been excited about it for weeks. They love being singled out as a group. The Harvard girls do a wonderful job working with them."

Outside, girls pile into blue vans, with their brand-new Harvard athletics posters held safely above their heads. They are laughing and shouting. Ebony and her sister Tiffany are lagging far behind their group as they walk through the snow, listing out loud the sports they like to play. They start to run when they notice their group has already reached the vans 50 yards away. Tiffany stops to shout back to the crowd of Harvard athletes. "I'm good at track too. I love track. I'm fast. Ice skating and gymnastics too."

"Yeah track. Add that to my list," calls Ebony, skidding to a stop. "And swimming."

They're both calling over their shoulders as they race a dead heat to their van. Their voices are barely audible. Only the names of other sports are clear ("soccer," "tennis"), along with their laughter.