Reply to thread

Message: [QUOTE="Jackalope, post: 4848926, member: 8"] MLK Day 1995. Tennessee vs UCONN, like a lot of posters in this thread. We live in the Danbury area, and the News-Times had almost daily front page articles on local hero Jen Rizzotti and the team. With all the hoopla, I decided to watch the game. My eldest daughter, three years old at the time, waddled into the room and peered at the TV. She asked me what I was watching, and I told her a very important basketball game. She looked again at the TV. “Those are Girls”, she said. “Girls can’t play basketball!” It amazed me that at three she already had picked up perceived gender differences! I put her on my lap and we watched the game, cheering Jen and the team. “Yes!”, I told her. “Those are girls and they certainly play great basketball!” I started reading the daily Jenn Rizzotti / UCONN articles in the News Times to her, and we watched every game we could for the rest of the season together. I enjoyed watching the team win that championship with my daughter. I was also happy that she took away other things from watching UCONN together. When she was in 7th Grade, she announced one day that she signed up to play football. It turns out they had sign ups at middle school and they told her girls can sign up for cheerleading while the boys play football. She told the boys in her class that she kicks their butts every day on the playground, so she can certainly do it on the field. We agreed to let her do it on the condition that she had to stick with out for at least two weeks before we would let her quit, as the equipment wasn’t cheap. The first few days were hard, and she really wanted to quit. She stuck it out and played the entire season. She ended up playing nose guard and was good at it. The coach of the team told me that he would wait to put her in the game when the other team was threatening to score. She would put on very bright nail polish, and when she lined up across from the Center, she would say to him, “Hey 83, what do you think of my nail polish?” Guaranteed fumble! She managed to get a few sacks and many tackles during the season. Her team won the league championship that year. It all started with that game in 1995. I became a die-hard UCONN women’s basketball fan. My daughter did stop watching games with me many years ago, but the lessons she learned watching them with me have served her well: Teamwork. Practice. Having Fun. Don’t accept gender roles. [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach