When Jeanne Drouilhet was in high school, she never envisioned herself defending the Penn State women's rugby team national championship title. Now, she can't imagine her life any other way.
"One of my friends suggested it jokingly and so we did," Drouilhet (junior-journalism) said of joining her high school team. "My mom made a bet with me that I wouldn't last two weeks, and so I stuck with it in the beginning partly because of that, but then I fell in love with the sport."
Now Drouilhet will extend her enthusiasm for athletics to young girls as part of Penn State's celebration of the 24th Annual National Girls and Women in Sports Day. Moderating a panel discussion hosted by Penn State Rugby, she'll host current and former female athletes, including an U.S. Olympic gold medal winner.
The panel discussion, which will take place at 3:30 p.m. Saturday in room 133 of the East Area Locker Room Building, will be held in conjunction with a rugby clinic for about 200 female high school athletes.
In addition, the girls will be making bracelets with beads symbolizing beauty, strength and power, said Bridget Franek, a Penn State distance runner and a coordinator for the event.
"It's really an important thing for high school girls to realize that sports weren't always like they are today," Franek (senior-kinesiology) said. "They have more opportunities than even just a few years ago. Women's athletics has a ways to go before we're completely equal to the men, but changes are being made everyday."
But enacting these changes in women's athletics is an ongoing process, said Pamela Noakes, executive director of the National Association for Girls and Women in Sport: Women still have 1.3 million fewer opportunities in sports than men, she said.
Noakes went to Capitol Hill on Wednesday with other members of the organization to speak with congressional representatives. The organization's goal was to foster support for a bill that would require high schools to report basic data about the status of female participation in athletics.
"You can find this information, but this bill would allow a community or school district to take a look at the numbers and see if they're in line with the people they want to be with," Noakes said. "It empowers them to see where their weaknesses are and then take action."
Though many people think of sports as being just as accessible to women as men today, Noakes said it's not as equal as some might think. She recalled one conversation she had with a parent whose daughter was a wrestler on her school's team: Opposing schools refused to compete against her, simply because of her gender.
Saturday's event will honor and recognize the previous accomplishments of women in athletics, but the goal of the event is more so to inspire young women to participate in sports and show them the importance of having positive female role models.
Franek said her mom has always been her role model, especially regarding athletics, because she was the only girl on her track team growing up.
"Hearing from her made me appreciate my situation all the more," Franek said. "That's going to be the underlying message we're trying to get across to the girls. With more opportunity, there's more participation, and that's the main goal."
