It was the winter of 2004; I was 5 years old and started basketball for the first time. My brothers are four years older than me, yes twin, and I always went to their games, so that’s probably why I wanted to play too.
Basketball for kindergartners is co-ed! That means the boys and girls play on the same team. What do I know and further what do I care. I always liked bouncing the ball between quarters at my brothers’ games and played with them at home. Basketball was basketball, not boy vs. girl.
Well, my mom took me to my first practice. There I met my teammates, a total of 10 of us. There were 8 boys and 2 girls, Katherine and me. Katherine was taller than me, most people are and the boys well they ranged in size. I guess I was nervous. There were three coaches who were all very nice.
So, the head coach talked about teamwork and what the season would be like and how we were there to learn some skills and have fun, after all we were 5 and 6 year old. As we sat listening to our coach, one of the other Dads and a teammate’s older brother were playing at a hoop right behind us. The ball took a bad bounce and hit me in the head. I tried not to cry, and I was fine until the coach looked at me and said are you ok. I cried.
As we had practice and played games, I noticed the boys didn’t like passing the ball to Katherine or me. I also noticed that Katherine didn’t seem to care about basketball at all. She was more interested in the holes on the concrete walls. But I cared, why didn’t they pass the ball to me? I hardly ever got to shoot the ball. I would practice at home and the coach told me I was the best dribbler on the team and the most improved player.
I continued to play coed basketball through second grade. The same thing happened, the boys didn’t pass to a girl unless they were desperate so what did I do – I did not pass the ball to a guy unless I was desperate.
Why, would a little boy not pass the ball to a girl? We were too young to know who was good and who was bad, right? Why did those boys think Katherine and I wouldn’t be as good as them? Who told them that? Aren’t we equals? Don’t we all deserve the same chance?
I believe that boys and girls and for that matter, people are equal and should be treated the same. Whether you are a difference sex, religion, or color, you are still a person. We should all follow “The Golden Rule” - treat others the way you would like to be treated. I still love basketball today and play in an all-girls’ league!!!
I love you're blog and I have had the same experience with boys never passing to me in sports. It was written very well and I totally agree with what you believe in. Great Job!
ReplyDeleteI never had this experience, but I can imagine how annoying it must have felt! I loved the way you decided to write your story and what you believe in!
ReplyDeleteYay, Meaghan! Girl power! I agree with you. It's funny, though, the world doesn't always agree. In so many countries, women are treated much differently than men. In our own country we are making strides, but it is still not completely equal. At least there is a WNBA. There isn't a professional women's league for sports like baseball and hockey. We still have a lot of work to do!
ReplyDelete4/5 points. This is a well structured entry with a good story line. Be careful to properly punctuate sentences that contain clauses. For example, you wrote: " What do I know and further what do I care." It would be mechanically correct if you punctuated the sentence this way: "What do I know, and further, what do I care?"