What Girls Gain from Sports: The Chance Every Girl Deserves
Sports can give a girl a sense of belonging, a chance to test herself, a way to move through setbacks, and a way to discover what matters to her.
Written by Linda Herron
Women Sports USA®
What girls gain from sports goes beyond wins, starting positions, or college opportunities. Think about a girl in your life and what sports could open up for her. She does not have to become a starter, win a championship, or play in college for the experience to matter. She needs the chance to step into the game—to try, learn, and discover what challenges her, what brings her joy, and what she can do when she has room to grow.
I know how much that first chance can matter. Some of my earliest sports memories come from playing street hockey with neighborhood kids. We were outside, moving, competing, and figuring out the game as we went. I did not know where sports would take me. I only knew I wanted to be part of the play. That opportunity let me try before I knew what I was capable of—the same freedom every girl deserves.
What Girls Gain from Sports: A Chance to Belong
Every girl should be welcomed as an athlete before anyone knows how good she will become. She may arrive with experience or still be learning how to hold the stick, throw the ball, or follow the play. Either way, she needs a place to learn without proving she belongs before she can participate.
When I found field hockey at Pilgrim High School, the game became an important part of my life. Later, playing at the University of Rhode Island challenged me in new ways. I was named captain in my junior and senior years, but that title followed years of learning to compete, work with teammates, and take responsibility for my part. Each stage deepened my understanding of myself and the game.
If you have ever been part of a team, you know its lessons can reach far beyond a title or a season. That is what field hockey taught me. A team can offer more than a uniform and a schedule. It can give a girl people to count on and teach her to show up for others. She learns that her voice matters, her effort is noticed, and she can contribute even when she isn't scoring. Belonging is not limited to the strongest player on the field.
That sense of belonging is built in everyday moments: a teammate making room on the bench, a coach explaining a skill without causing embarrassment, or someone noticing the quiet girl who has been working hard. These actions do more than help her feel seen. They show her how to extend the same welcome to someone else. In that way, a team becomes a place where she practices trust, responsibility, and respect for others. The Women’s Sports Foundation’s Thriving Through Sport report examines how high-quality sports settings relate to girls’ mental health and peer relationships
A Chance to Learn Through the Hard Parts
Belonging also means having support when the game gets hard. Sports bring missed passes, tough losses, uncomfortable feedback, and practices when improvement seems slow. Those moments can teach a girl to respond, adjust, and stay connected to something she cares about. She should be guided through them, not made to feel that one mistake defines her.
One reminder I have carried with me is, “Keep your head up and let’s catch the next ball.” Most of us need to hear some version of that after a mistake. It brings our attention back to the play in front of us. We cannot change the last moment, but we can learn from it and focus on the next one. A girl deserves honest encouragement about what needs work, along with the reassurance that she is still a valued member of the team.
Not every girl will respond to a challenge in the same way. Some will push toward a bigger goal. Others may need time, reassurance, or a different path. Instead of expecting every athlete to react the same way, we can give each girl the support and opportunity to discover what works for her.
One way a girl may respond is by developing quiet confidence. It does not always arrive as a loud voice or an eagerness to take the final shot. Sometimes it looks like returning to practice after a difficult day, asking for help, or trying the skill again when no one is watching. When we notice those choices, we help a girl recognize that courage can be quiet and that she is already learning to trust herself.
A Chance to Be Seen and Encouraged
Quiet courage is easier to build when someone recognizes it. That support often begins with a coach who sees what a girl may not yet see in herself. Clear instruction, thoughtful correction, or a moment of encouragement can help her believe she can learn something that once felt out of reach. Good coaching doesn't promise every athlete will become a champion. It takes her effort seriously, teaches her well, and shows her that growth takes time. The Positive Coaching Alliance offers another perspective on what makes a good coach.
Coaches are not the only ones who shape a girl’s experience. Parents, teachers, teammates, and supporters also influence what she learns to expect from sports. When the people around her welcome questions, recognize progress, and treat every player with respect, she can focus on learning and playing. She begins to see herself as an athlete, not a guest who must earn her place again and again.
Representation matters, too. When a girl watches women compete, coach, officiate, and lead, she can imagine more for herself. She begins to understand that sports offer many ways to stay involved and that her connection to the game does not have to end with a season or playing career.
Those examples are not limited to elite competition. A girl also benefits from women who lead a youth practice, organize a league, call a game, mentor a younger athlete, or return to a sport simply because they still love it. These women show her that a connection to sports can change over time without losing its value. She may compete, teach, lead, support, or find another way to keep the game in her life.
Let Her Decide What Sports Mean to Her
Even with those possibilities in view, to single out one outcome is wrong. One girl may dream of playing in college. Another may enjoy a school team, time with friends, or the chance to learn a new sport. A season can matter without leading to a scholarship, trophy, or lifelong athletic career. The experience belongs to the girl, and she should have room to decide what she wants from it.
That freedom to choose matters because sports can stay with a girl in ways she may not recognize at first. They stayed with me in ways I could not have predicted, whether I was playing in the street or walking onto a field for practice. I carried lessons about preparation, responsibility, teamwork, and beginning again into other parts of my life. They did not come from a perfect season. They grew over time through the people I played with and the work of showing up.
I share more about those lasting lessons in What Sports Gave Me That Never Went Away.
That lasting connection is one reason I tell women’s sports stories through Women Sports USA®. When athletes and coaches share the paths they have found, a girl can see that belonging and opportunity do not look the same for everyone. One story may help her imagine a possibility she has not considered.
We can make that freedom possible by giving every girl a place to play, people who welcome her, and time to learn what she enjoys. She may find competition, friendship, confidence, or simply the happiness of moving and being part of a team. The value of the experience isn't determined by how far she goes, but by the chance to discover what sports can mean in her life.
Helping a girl take that first step does not always require a grand gesture. It may mean offering a ride to practice, asking what sport she wants to try, attending her game, or encouraging her after a hard day. It can also mean treating equipment, instruction, and playing time as real needs, not extras. These choices make the invitation genuine and help her start, learn, and stick with it.
A safe, dependable place to play matters, too, as I explored in Where She Plays Matters: How Girls’ Sports Facilities Shape Opportunities.
Those choices may seem small, but together they can give a girl the kind of first chance that stays with her. Sports gave me something that kept growing long after my playing days. Now it is our turn to help her step into the game, discover what it can offer, and decide what she wants to carry forward.
Dream. Believe. Achieve.
Linda Herron is the Founder and CEO of Women Sports USA®. She is a former Division I field hockey athlete and coach, an author, and a business finance executive with over 40 years of experience.
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