I Write as WomanCoach: Runs Like a Boy

[2 Part Series]

(Editor’s Note: The following is a 2-part series sharing the personal reflection of the author’s life in sport and education. The author is WomanCoach).

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Part I. Runs Like a Boy (1950’s)

Because she can.
Because she was…
Born to run, play, explore, climb, create.
Be who she is.
In her heart, she is, always.

No matter what.

Tagged by others.
“You should be…should do…”
“Why do you…how come you…”
“She’s a ‘toughie’, that one…”

Girls had to wear dresses/skirts to school.
How limited she was in moving, playing, being.
She couldn’t wait to get home.
Put jeans on.
Passed down from her four older brothers.
She felt so much better in clothes she could move in.
Run, play, climb,
be herself.

She’s a Tomboy!
Does things boys do.
Plays sports with the boys.
Hangs out at the ballpark to watch the boys play…
When she wasn’t allowed.
Follows her brothers hoping to get invited.

 She needs to act like a girl!

It’s what she likes doing.
Who she is.
Let her be.

Boys played competitive sports.
She loved the competition!
She practiced with the boys.
Caught and threw with the best.
A girl who could play like a boy!
Coach Skeet put her in to show the boys how to hit the ball.
How to peg em out.

Game days…
she kept score, bat-boy, coached the hearts of the boys with Coach Skeet.
She loved sports.
It was a time when girls had to find a place to fit in.
When their role models were housewives.
She wanted the freedom to make her own decisions.
Her parents let her be who she was.
Her brothers always had her back.
She knew what she wanted.

Over and again the thud of the ball
Against the back concrete wall of the house
As she threw as hard as she could
While her mom prepared supper in the kitchen
She knew where her daughter was.
Being who she loved to be.

Today she is Program Coordinator for
An undergraduate program in Athletic Leadership at a D1 University.

Live what you love.
Respectfully.
It always feels of goodness from within.
Regardless of the work it takes.
As with her parents and bothers,
God has her back.

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Follow the two-part series:

(August 17) Introduction to WomanCoach
(August 21) It Comes From Within