Loyola's Women in Sports Day

 History of WISD

Last weekend, February 9th, Loyola University Athletics hosted the 20th annual Women in Sports Day. WISD is a day to bring national attention to the empowerment of girls and women in sports. The National Day began in 1987 as a day to remember Flo Hyman, an Olympic Volleyball player who died of Marfan’s Syndrome in 1986. Hyman dedicated her life and athletic achievements to promoting equality for women's sports and encouraging women to display their confidence, strength, and character through sports participation.

WISD group photo

Fun!

This is my second year participating in Loyola Athletic’s celebration of WISD and this year, I was able to fully immerse myself in the community that came out to Mcguire and build relationships amongst the young girls and their families. At WISD, girls in Kindergarten through 8th grade get to spend the day doing fun activities with the student-athletes before watching the women’s basketball game. I did activities like empowerment bracelet making, face painting, poster making, and hair braiding to just name a few!

Role Models

The young girls also had the opportunity for team and player autographs as they met and interacted with the student-athletes at Loyola. Growing up in Baltimore, I used to come to WISD at Loyola and can remember how much I looked up to each and every women's athlete there. I wanted to be just like them and dreamed of getting the chance to play a sport at the collegiate level and be as strong as them. This year, as I was making a bracelet with a 5th grade girl, Arden, she asked me “What do I have to do to play a sport in college?” I responded with what I was once told at WISD when I was her age. I told Arden that its most important to work hard and never give up, but most importantly, to love the sport. If you don’t love what you’re doing, you’ll never reach your full potential and you won’t be happy while you’re playing the sport either!

Inspiring and Empowering The Younger Generation

It was extremely inspiring for me to interact with the girls at WISD this year because I saw my younger self in a lot of them. They all have such big dreams and goals, and WISD at Loyola is such an important event in empowering the younger generations of Baltimore. I hope these girls left WISD feeling like they deserve the chance to do what they love and move their bodies. Through interacting with so many other ambitious, strong, and empowering girls and women at Loyola, I hope they further spread the positive message and feel inspired to advocate for their equal rights not only in the world of sports, but for their futures as well.