Campus & Community

National Girls and Women in Sports Day has spring encore

2 min read

Neighborhood girls join Harvard athletes for skills and drills

Rodriguez,
Erika Rodriguez (left) of St. Kevin’s School in Dorchester tries to maneuver around Crimson soccer player Becky Smith ’08. (Staff photos Jon Chase/Harvard News Office)

Nearly 70 girls (ages 10 to 14) from Boston neighborhoods joined Crimson women athletes last Friday (April 28) for a beautiful spring day filled with skills and drills in a celebratory encore of National Girls and Women in Sports Day (Feb. 7).

For many of the young visitors, the clinics in soccer, basketball, and tennis introduced them to sports that they had never played. The girls worked one-on-one with volunteer “coaches” from Harvard’s soccer, basketball, volleyball, and tennis teams for three hours and followed up the workout eating pizza and watching a Harvard-Cornell women’s lacrosse game.

Peterzan,
Crimson tennis player Laura Peterzan ’09 (left) gives hands-on instruction to Tammara Essex, a student at the Rogers Middle School in Hyde Park.

Harvard women athletes have celebrated the growth of women’s athletics and inspired their young neighbors to get involved in sports in the name of National Girls and Women in Sports Day each year for more than a decade. This year’s event was made possible through a collaboration with the Boston Police Department, which works with Harvard Athletics on a number of community service events throughout the year.

– Lauren Marshall

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Noel, Ayala,
Harvard basketballer Jessica Knox ’08 (from right) leads a dribbling drill with Jasmine Ayala, a student at the Dearborn Middle School in Roxbury, and Jessica Noel, who goes to St. Kevin’s School in Dorchester.

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