I have played for many sports teams in my life, weather it be basketball, soccer, lacrosse, or that time I tried my hand at volleyball. I love all my teams and all my coaches. There’s just one problem. It's easy to miss when you're young, and even easier to miss when you're older and all you're focused on is not messing up in front of your family. It's easy to miss, but that doesn’t mean it doesn't happen. Sexism. Even more apparent to me now than before. My eyes were truly opened to this problem when I joined a basketball league just for fun in the off season. My coaches were three men, all fathers of some of the girls on my team. There are plenty of great male coaches, these men were just not among them. I already couldn’t stand it on our first practice. They treated me and the other girls as if we were unable to comprehend simple instruction. The girls were a bit younger than me and not as skilled. This would not have bothered me, if the coaches corrected their mistakes to make them better players. Letting them repeat the same mistakes over and over so you don't have to yell at them and risk making them cry like you think all girls do is unacceptable. If someone is trying to learn, and you are telling them they are doing good even if they are not is only hurting them in the long run. I would not be the athlete and person I am today without the strong female coaches who didn’t allow any excuses or unfixed mistakes. Another problem that I can't get off my mind, is how the coaches tell us what ever happens on the court is ok as long as we smile and look cute. Telling girls that they can pull anything off as long as they always look happy and cute even if their skill level is subpar is detrimental to their growth as a modern woman. The problem was even more angering when I watched my head coach coach his son’s team. They were the same age group as the girls, but they were being yelled at, their mistakes were being corrected, and they got to learn real plays unlike us. Why should boys get a better chance at becoming a better athlete than girls? It doesn’t get any better the older you get. Even the American Women’s Soccer team, who won the world cup, get paid less than the losers of the men's world cup. If America really wants to give everyone equal opportunities, the first step is making women and men equal socially and economically and politically. If we focus on that, maybe I will live to see the day there is no sexism on the court.
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