Female Athletes Drop Out

It's a fact: starting at age 14 girls drop out of sports at twice the rate of boys. 
We read that recently and it made us think.  About all the kids we've seen give up on staying physically fit.  About all the kids who never get healthy fit.  About all the kids who don't know what it's like or who don't have the opportunity to be part of a team sport where everyone has a place. 

The research, from the Women's Sport Foundation, led us to explore their website.  It's filled with some great reseach.  If anyone needs some info for a school essay or just to gain a little insight into sports and gender issues, check it out.  That also reminded me of a tour I took to Ireland and a different attitude towards women playing sports.  We met the president of the Irish Rugby Union, on our way to pick up tickets to the English v Ireland Six Nations match.  He asked us who we coached.  When he found out we coached women's rugby he turned to us and said, "Why would you waste your time doing that?"  He wasn't joking, as we later came to understand.

On a separate tour to Ireland we encountered a few high school girls teams along the way.  There were few teams and we had a challenging time picking up games.  Their coaches and players almost all said the same thing ... we don't get much support from anyone or anything.  It was clear to us that compared to 'the states' fewer high school girls were playing sports over there.  There was a whole different attitude and it was a good lesson to all of us, to appreciate the opportunites we have over here.