Prescott YMCA hosts girls’ sports day

By Robyn Dolan, The Catholic Sun
April 19, 2007

PRESCOTT — Girls ages 7-16 are invited to take part in activities ranging from gymnastics, golf and rock climbing, to kickboxing, tennis and softball at the Prescott YMCA.

The annual Girls in Sports Day will be held from 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. May 19 at the YMCA, 750 Whipple St., Prescott. 

More than 125 have already registered for the 260 available spaces. Those interested should sign up in advance.

Participants will have the opportunity to meet members of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, the inspiration for the movie “A League of Their Own,” including Mary Lou “Lou Lou” Douglas, pitcher for the South Bend Blue Sox in 1953. 

Douglas will give the girls a short motivational talk, tell a little bit of her story and then help out at the softball station.

The event is  organized by Catholic Charities’ Teenage Pregnancy Prevention Program in cooperation with the Prescott YMCA, Girl Scouts, Yavapai College Athletics, Prescott Parks and Recreation and the Women’s Sports Foundation.

It is designed to encourage girls to develop a healthy, active lifestyle, encourage proper nutrition, find alternatives to teenage sex and promote abstinence. 

All participants will receive a sports bag filled with  hair ties, sunblock lotion, Frisbees and more.

Catholic Charities offers a range of social services that strengthen families, protect and nurture children and support people in crisis.

According to Diane DeLong of Catholic Charities, Girls Sports Day began six years ago after research by the Women’s Sports Foundation indicated that girls participating in sports were less likely to have sex and get pregnant at an early age. 

“In Prescott it costs $90 or more to play on a school sports team, and that is if you make the try outs,” DeLong said.

Part of the goal of the event is to raise money so that more girls to play sports and to make families aware of lower-cost sports programs available through the YMCA and Prescott Parks and Recreation.