Girls Helping Girls in School Athletics

They may not win the championship this year, but athletes on the Francis Polytechnic High School girls basketball team are definitely stars in the eyes of girls at two northeast Valley elementary schools.

Recently the Poly students began sharing their athletic insights with fourth- and fifth-graders at Fernangeles and Strathern Street elementary schools as part of a new Los Angeles Unified School District program called “Playground Parity.”

“The reason it’s called Playground Parity is that we’ve found that during recess the boys were taking over the courts,” said Sharon Murphy, director of the program. “The girls wanted to play, but they needed their own time to learn the fundamentals.”

Funded by grants from the Los Angeles Women’s Foundation and Girls Inc., Playground Parity is administered by the LAUSD’s Commission for Gender Equity.

Starting in November, female athletes from Poly and Fairfax high schools have been visiting elementary schools in their areas to talk to students about playground fairness.

They also have led special clinics to teach the girls the rules of different playground games.

By pairing up elementary school girls with high school athletes, Murphy said, the program aims to increase the girls’ confidence as well as their skill level. Fernangeles teacher Barbara Huff said the program has produced immediate results.

“The girls have responded very positively, and the boys’ respect for the girls has grown tremendously,” said Huff. “They’re playing basketball together at lunch now and they weren’t before.”

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Last week, Huff accompanied a group of the girls from Fernangeles to see the Poly girls in action against El Camino High School.

Between games, all of the girls were recognized for their participation in the program and the younger ones received posters and Olympic pins.

“I like sports and I like little kids, so this has been really fun for me,” said Sarah Tomsik, 16, one of the high school mentors and a center on Poly’s basketball team. “You can see that this has helped the girls feel more confident playing with the guys.”

“It’s been great for our students to work with the younger girls,” said Kim McEwen, athletic director at Poly. “They may not all be superstar athletes, but they have skills that they can share.”