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Challenge: Sameness and specialization The Play: Encourage Sport Sampling
From the Sport for All, Play for Life report: Resist early sport specialization that limits overall development. Grow the menu of sport options, create better connections to vulnerable populations, and more athletes-for-life will emerge.
FIVE KEY FINDINGS IN OAKLAND
than boys. (See Scoreboard on page 5.) Volleyball and cheer/step are the only team sports among the top 10 that girls said they want to try. Girls are rarely introduced to sports they want – just 35% have played an individual sport more than once vs. 86% who have tried a team sport. “Patriarchy is real in youth sports,” said Amy Boyle, Coliseum College Prep Academy athletic director. “We’ve had to do much more intentional building for girls’ opportunities by listening to what they want and laying the groundwork in middle school.” Title IX lawsuit against Oakland schools carries future stipulations. In 2020, Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) settled a Title IX lawsuit brought by Fair Play for Girls in Sports after the district cut 10 high school sports that affected twice as many girls as boys. The 2018 cuts meant participation in the remaining sports was 61% male and 39% female; the student body was 51% male and 49% female. District officials at the time said the decision was made in a rush to balance their budget and without adequate staffing. 22 OUSD spent a year working with prominent Title IX consultant Donna Lopiano to begin addressing gaps. Oakland Athletic League (OAL) started four high school girls lacrosse teams, began prioritizing middle school sports (18% of middle school students now play organized scholastic sports, according to OAL), and plans to add elementary school programming.
Oakland youth want to try different sports and need more sustainable opportunities. Oakland is largely a football and basketball town, but Oakland youth identified 24 sports that at least 10% of them said they want to try. That’s far more interest than youth expressed in Baltimore or Columbus, Ohio, where the Aspen Institute produced previous community reports. 20 The challenge for Oakland youth is they lack a sustained way to play new sports. Exposure to new sports often comes through one-off opportunities without the capacity or alignment to create lasting infrastructure for continued participation. Even basketball lacks financial investments for programming or maintenance when new outdoor courts get built. Oakland has only 2.6 basketball hoops per 10,000 people (compared to 4.4 hoops for San Francisco), ranking ninth out of the 15 largest cities in California. 21 Girls are often interested in different types of sports than boys. The one-size-fits-all menu of traditional sports (football, basketball, baseball/softball, soccer) isn’t working for Oakland girls, who were more likely than boys to report they are not interested in sports. Boys play basketball at twice the rate of girls. Almost 7 in 10 girls expressed interest to try individual skill sports – a slightly higher rate
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PROJECT PLAY — AN INITIATIVE OF THE ASPEN INSTITUTE
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