To the Editor:
After seeing the article, "Area Coaches to be Honored for Work Empowering Girls," I could not help but think how great it is to see women inspiring women in sports. I think female coaches have a huge impact on the girls they coach because the young girls can so easily relate to them. I remember being in elementary school and feeling anxiety or nervous every time I had to participate in the mile or any other physical fitness test. Once I started soccer, basketball and dance, my female coaches helped me conquer my fears of not only being shy but playing sports in general. My confidence definitely grew because of them.
We see more and more that female coaches are disappearing and being replaced by a male coach. The Title 9 act made it so that there needs to be an equal number of male and female athletes at a school. Because of this more male teams are being cut to equal the number of female teams.
As the male teams are cut their male coaches move over to the female team. There has been a huge decrease in the number of female coaches. In 1972, 90 percent of female teams had female coaches but in 2008 only 43 percent had female coaches.
To see that there are still female coaches in my community encouraging and inspiring young girls is a great and heart-warming thing to see.
Mary Hagen Grow
Great Falls