Women's basketball helps local girls

Author: Nicole Lam

This weekend, the Middlebury women's basketball team came away with a 69-57 victory over Skidmore. But head coach Noreen Pecsock did not make the practices any easier for the week just because of the win - it was just another week of work as usual. However, there was one special surprise this past Tuesday - the Middlebury Union Middle School girls' basketball team got to attend the Panthers' practice and see just what it takes to take their games to the next level.

Under the foundation "Stride: The Wright Foundation for Female Athletes," the two teams get to spend time together throughout the season, attending each other's games and practices and striking up friendships. This provides the chance for female athletes like Ashley Barron '09 and Kaitlyn Fallon '10 to become role models for the younger girls. In turn, the junior high students get to spend a day just hanging out and eating pizza with the big girls. Benefits are reaped on both sides. Overall, the program seeks to encourage the young girls to stay committed to playing sports and doing well in academics.

Coach Pecsock explained that the goal is not to have the middle school girls just focus on playing basketball but also to envision themselves as college students later on in life. Basketball is not the only thing that links these girls together. Other more important aspects of life, such as their dreams and aspirations, connect them as well.

"After a few rounds of playing Shipwreck, we realize we watch the same television shows and movies, and then after pizza, we find out some of the younger girls are interested in what we study in college," said Barron.

"We also understand the stress levels that middle school basketball girls deal with, whether it is about boys or parents," added Fallon.

For the last seven years, Middlebury has been involved in this Sisters in Sport program.

"On top of the demands of academics and a sports schedule, Noreen's team finds time to visit the seventh-grade team, run clinics for them and root for them at their games," said Christina Ellison '86, the director of Sisters in Sport. "The middle school girls, in turn, visit the college and come to one of the women's home basketball games."

Besides basketball, there is also a ski mentoring program under the Stride foundation. One program called Snow Stars Alpine enrolls disadvantaged elementary-school girls from Ripton and Middlebury in ski lessons at the Middlebury College Snow Bowl. The other is Snow Stars Nordic, in which the Middlebury College female ski instructors and the cross-country ski team serve as mentors, and that brings the young girls to the Rikert Ski Touring Center at Breadloaf.

"The aim of Sisters in Sport is to get girls hooked on sports so they learn the lessons and reap the benefits of a healthy activity that will pay them back over their entire lives whether it's through improved self-esteem, a decreased chance of breast cancer, less likelihood of teen pregnancy or drug use, or a better chance to become a leader," commented Ellison.

Added Barron: "The point of Sisters in Sport is to give the middle school girls a chance to actually talk to an older sister, especially for those who do not have one."

Clearly, the Middlebury women's basketball team cares about more than winning basketball games.