March is a special time in the world of sports.
It’s the month when basketball takes center stage. Brackets start appearing on office walls, buzzer beaters make instant legends, and for a few weeks every year, the entire country seems to be watching the same games…a band of brothers (or sisters) joined together cheering your favorite team to victory.
But March is also Women’s History Month, which always makes me think about the girls who stepped onto courts long before women’s sports received the recognition they do today.
I was one of those girls.
I grew up loving basketball. Like so many kids who fall in love with a sport, it started simply enough — a ball, a goal, and a dream that maybe, just maybe, the game could take me somewhere.
Back then, opportunities for girls in sports were already improving thanks to the women who fought for them before us. Title IX had opened doors that once seemed permanently closed, but the path still required determination.
We played anyway.
We practiced in “the extra gym” or “around the boys schedule”. We ran drills until our legs felt like rubber. We learned how to take a hard loss and come back the next day ready to work harder.
And for many of us, sports gave us something far bigger than wins and losses.
They gave us confidence.
They taught us discipline. They taught us how to lead. They taught us how to work toward a goal that didn’t always come easily.
For me, basketball eventually led to the opportunity to play at the college level on scholarship — something that once would have been almost unimaginable for girls who loved sports.
But the real gift wasn’t just the scholarship or the opportunity to continue playing the sport I love.
It was the lessons the game left behind.
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Those lessons have followed me long after the final buzzer of my playing days. They shaped the way I approach challenges, the way I lead, and the way I believe in young people chasing their potential.
That’s one of the reasons youth sports still mean so much to me today.
Through my work with The EMpact One Foundation, I’ve seen firsthand how access to sports can change a child’s life. Sometimes all it takes is a pair of cleats, a glove, or a registration fee to open the door to an opportunity that can shape who a young person becomes.
And when that opportunity reaches a girl who loves sports?
It carries even deeper meaning.
Because somewhere in every gym, field, or ballpark there’s a young girl discovering what the rest of us already know — that she belongs there too.
Women’s sports have come a long way. Today we see packed arenas, national championships drawing millions of viewers, and female athletes inspiring the next generation.
But every step forward was built on the determination of girls who showed up and played anyway.
The girls who practiced when no one was watching.
The girls who believed they deserved a place in the game.
And the girls who grew up to become the women now cheering from the sidelines, coaching the next generation, and making sure those doors stay open.
So while March Madness fills our screens with incredible basketball moments, I can’t help but think about the young girls sitting in the stands or watching from home.
Because somewhere in Saline County tonight, there’s a girl picking up a basketball and imagining what might be possible.
And if history tells us anything, it’s this:
The next generation of women in sports is already getting ready to play.
Until next week…that’s how ball bounces!
Read more from How the Ball Bounces with Bekka in the archives at www.mysaline.com/bounces.
About the author: Bekka Wilkerson is a lifelong lover of all things sports. Raised in a super athletic household it was no surprise when she too began to love sports at a young age. It seems like from the time she could walk she had a softball bat in her hands, but her true athletic passion came from all things Basketball. That love served her well as a Bryant High School Lady Hornet and ultimately earned her a full scholarship to play at the University of Central Arkansas – among many other adventures.
These days Bekka can be found running around Saline County with her husband, Speedy, or chasing one of her grandsons. She is also the Executive Director of The EMpact One Foundation, a Saline County Nonprofit Organization that helps young people stay connected to extracurricular activities through tuition assistance and equipment provisions.
Reach out to Bekka with questions and/or ideas about things you want to see in this column at [email protected] and learn more about The EMpact One Foundation at www.empactone.org.
