A lack of opportunity has in the past denied girls the fun and benefits of sports. Now a group of Edina middle-schoolers is tackling a new problem that is discouraging fellow female classmates from jumping in — the notion that being the best is all that matters.
Hypercompetitiveness is showing up in girls who play sports rigorously in grade school, they say, as is burnout. Others report feeling embarrassed to "only" play at the recreation level, or assume they've started too late to succeed. The concern is that these thoughts are driving girls away from activities that offer proven benefits of leadership, confidence and risk-taking.
"You don't have to be a superstar to be an athlete," said Lila Emerson, 13, an eighth-grader at Edina's Southview Middle School.
Their solution is the first Edina Girls' Sports Summit, a celebration of sports that will feature professional female athletes, as well as experts in sports psychology and nutrition.
Nearly 150 teen girls have registered for the event, which is being held Monday, Sept. 30, when Edina schools are out. The nine girls arranged the summit as a volunteer "JV board" for Her Next Play, an Edina-based nonprofit that promotes the career-development benefits of athletics for women. The organization notes that 65% of Fortune's Most Powerful Women competed in sports, and 95% of female executives played as well.
"There's a lot of resources and time being spent on sports," said Sara Wegmann, founder of Her Next Play and the mother of two daughters. "We think we can impact the next generation of leaders by keeping girls in sports and helping them understand everything they are learning" from them.
On the surface, high school participation figures don't suggest a problem. The 117,885 girls in high school sports in Minnesota last school year was a record, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations. Girls also represented 49% of all high school athletes in Minnesota. No other state had such equity in its high school athletes.
However, rapid growth over the past two decades in female high school athletes has stagnated, which could reflect population trends, but also burnout. High school figures also don't account for girls giving up sports at the recreational level.