‘IN THE HUDDLE’

Varsity Girls Field Hockey Team Learns LessonsFrom Female Leaders In Sport

The Varsity Girls Field Hockey team had the privilege of joining Carmen Law, an STA alumni, at Lead Thru Sport’s inaugural women’s sport symposium on October 19 at YSpace in Markham. Carmen and her friend, Natasha Bussoli, felt the need to give back to the community who had supported them throughout their sporting careers. “As young, female coaches in a male-dominated sports community, we are determined to make a difference and build a culture of female leaders. We see the benefit of developing our own skills through participating in sports, so we are inspired to use sport as a vehicle to have an overall impact on youth. We also see a gap in education and intention, as well as a lack of focus on citizen engagement in youth programs of today.”  Fast forward to today and their not-for-profit organization Lead Thru Sport is up and running. Its goal is to provide athletes with opportunities to develop their character and apply essential skills outside of sport. All of this and Carmen is pursuing her Masters of Education in England through Queen’s University…. needless to say, Carmen spends a lot of time flying back and forth across the ocean!

Their first event was “In the Huddle” Lessons from Female Leaders in Sport.  This was a unique opportunity offered to female student-athletes in high school to learn from stories told by seven accomplished women in their various fields.  With such passion so evident, the field hockey girls embraced the evening, learned how sport teaches many life lessons and had a lot of fun at the same time. Julie Shum, world traveler and ultra marathoner, taught us how to “define our journey and follow in our own footsteps”.  Andrea Beneteau, Markham’s first female firefighter, recounted how her experience in sport helped her develop resilience and how “life starts just outside of your comfort zone”. Other speakers reinforced the concept that confidence is vital to success not only in athletics but also on the playing field of life.

 

What a great day for our varsity field hockey girls.  We played in our last field hockey game of the season and narrowly missed out of a playoff spot, we had a yummy team building dinner at Milestones and to top it all off we attended the inspiring evening.  Thank you, girls, for such a great season!!

 Mrs. McFadden & Coach Melissa.

 

 

 

 

By Mrs. A McFadden – Varsity Girls Field Hockey