Hey guys, long time no see! I wish I could write a lot more here but unfortunately, life gets in the way a lot. Now that I’m in my offseason I’m going to make an effort to write a little more.

I saw a tweet a few days ago made by a college softball coach that really got me thinking.

It said:

“Why is a girl will work her a** off all week on all aspects of her game and get to game day and question her ability to play. Whereas a guy will do nothing all week and rock up on game day and think he is the second coming of Babe Ruth?

After reading the tweet it got me thinking, why is this the case?

As much as I hate to admit it, men have more confidence than women usually. I can’t tell you how many boys in high school told me that they were better ballplayers than me even though I was committed to a D1 college, and they were on the JV baseball team. 

If there’s one thing men have, it's the audacity.

But you know what, good for them.

How is it that men have this natural confidence that most women just do not have? I know for me personally, it took a long time to become a confident person. It sounds awful, but a big reason why I became a more confident woman was through success and results, rather than just being me. 

When I first became a college athlete I was absolutely terrified, I felt like I simply did not belong. I chose not to play softball at my high school so I could continue to play travel soccer, which meant I didn’t have any high school records or accolades that my college teammates had. It made me feel like I had to prove myself 1000x more than everyone else.

Why is it that a man in this same situation would probably feel entitled to play in college and know he belongs?

I believe it has to do with something bigger than sports. Women have pretty much been told their entire lives that being confident, turn into being cocky, which turns into being a b****. Whereas men have been able to be cocky with no consequences.

Women are taught to be selfless and humble servants in order to be good mothers one day. While men are taught to be strong and independent. This cycle starts at a really young age. When little boys are being rude or loud we say “boys will be boys” but when a little girl does these same things we hold them to the highest of standards. This criticism that young girls experience leads to a decrease in confidence.

It’s a well-known thing that people play better in their sport when they feel better about themselves. This means that having confidence in yourself is a big thing. Most women athletes obtain confidence through repeated successful results, but what if we just decided to have a natural confidence? There’s no reason that we shouldn’t believe that we’re the best, right? If women decide to be confident with no validation, think of how much more we could accomplish. 

As I mentioned before, at the beginning of my college career I struggled a lot with confidence. After talking with some teammates though, I realized that I needed to rethink the way I played and carried myself in order to feel more comfortable and confident on the field. Here’s a few things that helped me

• PODCASTS. I can not emphasize how much I love podcasts. I’m on the road a lot with softball and it’s a great time for me to listen to podcasts about something I’m struggling with. You can find a podcast on just about anything but there are a ton out there that can help build your confidence. It may sound random, but Emma Chamberlain has some great podcasts on how she built her confidence over the years that I love to listen to.

• Another thing that helped me a lot was surrounding myself with people that believed in me. Life can be hard sometimes, straight up. Having people around you that hype you up and pick you up at your lowest can totally change your mindset. 

• Having confident people to look up to is also a great thing. I’m really lucky and am surrounded by absolute girl bosses everyday with my teammates and coaches. I highly encourage you to find confident people to see how they walk in the world.

• Changing my mindset was probably one of my biggest things though. You can listen to as many podcasts as you want and have a lot of great friends, but until you change your mindset, you won’t change. We have a choice to be confident, it’s simply that easy. You might have people tell you that you can not change or that it’s not that easy, but they’re wrong. Once I made the intentional choice to be confident, my whole outlook on life changed.

This doesn’t mean I don’t struggle with confidence today, because I definitely do. You’re simply not human if you don’t. For me though, I now have the tools to change my mindset when I start to not feel confident.

Women have felt like they have to earn their confidence, but what if we turned the tables and we start out by being confident? If a man can do it, why not a woman?

I know that everyone says this about 2020 but man, what a year. Between a pandemic, racial injustices, the death of some of the most influential people, and many other tragedies, it’s easy to say that 2020 has been a year full of hardships. For me personally, I have been through many ups and downs this year. My first collegiate softball season was canceled due to the pandemic, I struggled with mental health issues for the first time in my life, and I had to deal with a lot of changes that I was not prepared for. I know that so many people have struggled more than me this year, but 2020 was just rough at times for me. But, there were also many bright spots in 2020 that I feel really lucky to have experienced. I grew a lot closer to my family during quarantine, I became super close to my roommates in college and made great memories in this past semester despite the circumstances, my softball team got to practice for most of the semester as a team, and I managed to still stay close to some of my oldest friends. Overall, despite all of the struggles, I feel incredibly blessed to be surrounded by so many awesome people that not only support me but encourage me to be a better person every day. 

When people look back at 2020, I know it’s unlikely that they will look back on the good times of it, but I know I will try to because there IS good to look back on, especially when it comes to women in sports. Due to the adversity that the world faced, many opportunities came to change the world for women in sports. These are just a few momentous moments for the year 2020.

Sarah Fuller Becomes the First Women Football Player to Play and Score for a Power 5 Football Team

Sarah Fuller is a goalkeeper for the Vanderbilt women’s soccer team where she helped her team to a conference championship in the year 2020. While this is already an amazing accomplishment, sometime after the championship game she was asked to kick for the Vanderbilt football team because their kickers were out due to being quarantined for COVID-19. On November 28, 2020, Sarah became the first woman to participate in a power 5 football game when she kicked off in the second half for Vanderbilt. Then on December 12, 2020, she became the first woman to score in a power 5 football game when she kicked an extra point. Sarah received a lot of hate for deciding to help out her school’s football team from fans that believed she was not capable. Sarah proved her haters wrong though and by deciding to compete, she paved the way for girls like her that want to change the way women are perceived in sports. 

Kim Ng becomes First Female General Manager

On November 13, the Miami Marlins decided to promote Kim Ng as the General Manager of their team. This made her the highest-ranking woman in professional sports. Kim Ng played softball at the University of Chicago and from there she worked hard to climb up the ladder until she eventually became qualified as a general manager. Her resilience to be the best should be observed and inspire others. 

Alyssa Nakken becomes MLB’s First Female Coach

Alyssa Naken was 4 time All- American softball player at Sacramento State before she had aspirations to be a coach. Her determination would soon lead her to become a coach for the San Francisco Giants and would coach on-field on July 21st for the first time. Hopefully, more women will follow her path and decide to coach in baseball since so many baseball players have decided to coach softball.

The NWSL Comes to Los Angeles

The National Women’s Soccer League is coming to Los Angeles as a club called Angel City. This is awesome because the club will be led by a majority of women ownership’s groups including Natalie Portman, Eva Longoria, Serena Williams, Mia Hamm, Abby Wambach, and other prominent women. Olympia Ohanian is also a co-owner which makes her the youngest pro team owner in sports. These women understand that sports can not grow unless there is an investment, so hopefully, this is a step towards growing women’s sports.

Becky Hammon becomes First Women to act as a Head Coach in the NBA

On December 30th, Gregg Popovich, head coach of the San Antonio Spurs was ejected from his game against the Los Angeles Lakers. He then appointed his assistant coach, Becky Hammon, to fill in as the head coach in his absence. This would make her the first woman to act as a head coach in the NBA. Most coaches of men’s sports are men, but this act could lead to a change of women being able to have opportunities to compete for these positions.

There are a lot of other moments when women made history in sports this year and I encourage you to look into it.

While this year had its hardships, I would say I grew. I am not even close to the person I was last December, and I am so thankful for that. I have grown to be more independent, I think for myself and I let my beliefs known, and I’ve grown to become proud of myself. These are aspects I never had until this year. With hardships come change, and with change comes growth. The change we experienced in women’s sports this year, allowed for sports to grow. 

I hope in 2021 that this growth continues and that the hardships you faced in 2020, turn into lessons that help you grow as a person in 2021. 

I’m going to finish this post with one of my favorite quotes, “Overpower. Overtake. Overcome. - Serena Williams” I think I saw this on a Nike commercial but for some reason, it’s always stuck with me. In the past, this quote meant to me that I was going to dominate and excel in everything I do because I had the determination to. This year, this quote means something different to me. To me, it now means that I have already faced so many hardships in 2020, so now I know that I can overpower, overtake, and overcome anything 2021 has for me. I hope that you can take this mindset into 2021 with you also. 

Happy New Year!!!

What’s one thing that we know that administrators in the sports world love almost as much as they love winning? MONEY. Just look at recent events in college sports. Administrators in the NCAA were so worried about losing money for their college that they pushed to have football during the pandemic. I am not saying it’s a bad thing to be so consumed by money, but it’s just a fact that money has always been tied to sports, whether it’s gambling, getting paid to play, getting paid to coach, etc. If the sports world is so worried about money, then why do they not try to appeal to one of their biggest group of consumers? Women. I’m going to give a quick overview of how women do bring in money for the sport’s world. 

In the United States, in about 75% of families women are the primary spenders in their homes. This means that women make most of the decisions on what they purchase pertaining to sports. This includes tickets, equipment, athletic wear, etc. Women are also buying more and more athleisure wear. Not only to wear for physical activity but to just wear out and about. Industries like Adidas and Under Armor are not dominating women’s activewear as they do men’s activewear because they are not appealing to their women customers like Lululemon’s and Nike does.  Women also love to watch sports, surprise! Women make up about 47% of MLS fans, 46% of MLB fans, and 43% of NFL fans. That might come as a shock to a lot of people, but these leagues have noticed that women do take an interest and have updated their marketing strategies to also attract women. Lastly, women athletes are bringing in crowds! In the FIFA’s Women’s World Cup there were over 1 billion viewers and in the 2018 US Women’s Open Finals there were 50% more viewers than the men’s side. 

So, what does this all mean? To me, it means it is time to move past the gender stereotype that women do not care about sports and it is time that the sports world gives women the respect they deserve. A hundred years ago, women sat on the sidelines and would politely clap at a baseball game, but today I know women that would fight a man over a bad call if it came down to it. We have become passionate about sports, and have fought for where we are today, but we want more. If it is money that these administrators care about so much, women have shown that we can bring in the money. So, put women’s sports on major channels on TV, because it will be watched. If you market towards women and encourage women to pursue their careers in sports, the industry will grow. Women do in fact love sports and the money women are putting into sports proves it. 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/ceceliatownes/2019/10/28/women-impact-the-bottom-line-of-the-sports-world-in-major-ways/?sh=74db6bba4109