In 2023, the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation (LA County Parks) debuted Girls’ Sports Day at El Cariso Park, an event meant to close the gender gap in sports by connecting young girls with athletic programming and mentoring. And on Saturday, May 17, it made its return to Sylmar.
Approximately 300 girls between the ages of 9 and 18 participated in four different sports clinics that included street hockey, volleyball, soccer and basketball for 50 minutes at a time. Two other clinics, for cheer and tennis, were provided around noon. All the registered participants were given free athletic shoes.
Additionally, for the first time this year, LA County Parks added a workshop to inform parents how to support girls in sports, whether it be through mentorship, coaching, or providing a positive environment at home.
Each year, the department has a different agency host the event so girls in different parts of LA can join. This year, it was held by the North Agency, as it was in 2023, and next year, it will be hosted by the South Agency.
Regina Bradley, assistant regional recreation director for LA County Parks, said the purpose of the event is to get girls interested in different sports, as they often only stick to one sport and do not try others.
“We wanted to try to build up as much confidence and self-esteem in these girls and promote their physical and mental health,” Bradley said. “We know that these types of events strengthen the community connection, and we want to just provide as much mentorship to them as possible. That’s what the whole goal of the event is, … breaking those stereotypes that girls don’t participate in sports, or girls only play one specific sport.”
To show that women not only can play in sports but can dominate in their respective fields, the event featured two athletes as keynote speakers: Allyson Felix, the most decorated woman in Olympic track and field history with 11 medals, and Blake Bolden, the first Black player to compete in the National Women’s Hockey League and a scout for the LA Kings.
And having these athletes in the community does have an impact. Bradley recounted that a girl excitedly brought her hockey stick to get it signed by Bolden.
“They [the athletes] understand that girls don’t get this opportunity all the time,” Bradley said. “As a whole, we don’t put a lot of emphasis on our girls, so I think they understand the importance of getting these girls interested in different sports and trying different things.”
Having that female representation is extremely important, because girls who play sports sometimes don’t have female coaches, Bradley said. By showing these young girls role models they can look up to, and not simply teaching them the sport, it sends the message that they belong in these spaces.
“It kind of breaks the gender roles in athletics because you’re always seeing the boys being athletic, but girls can be just as athletic, they can be just as competitive, and I think that this provides an equal opportunity to break those stereotypes for them,” Bradley said. “I think we’re able to break those barriers and we’re able to say, ‘Hey, you can do exactly what the boys do, if not better.’”
As a department, she continued, they are committed to promoting girls in sports. To that end, they offer girls-only clinics and leagues.
While it hasn’t been difficult to provide these types of activities, it’s been more challenging to get girls to come out and participate. For example, Bradley said that one of the girls in her late teens at Saturday’s event was reluctant to come in the first place and only did so because her mom made her.
But when they do participate, Bradley finds that the girls have a great experience, and the feedback she gets from families has been positive. That same teen girl who didn’t want to come later told Bradley that she had made a new best friend at the event.
“If I got one girl to feel like she belonged, I did something right,” Bradley said. “If I got one girl to feel like she enjoyed herself, I felt like we’ve done our job.”