Our Time is NOW

On August 30, 2023, Nebraska volleyball set the world record for women’s sports attendance, as 92, 003 spectators watched the 5-time NCAA champions beat Omaha 3-0.?? Wow, just WOW!

The previous record for attendance at a women’s sports event was 91,648, set on April 22, 2022, in Barcelona, Spain for a football Champion League Match between FC Barcelona and Wolfsburg, which Barcelona won, 5-1.

I remember taking the floor at the Intramural Building in 1977 as an outside hitter for Michigan State University’s Women’s volleyball team.? Yes, I’m a first-generation Title IX college athlete.? I attended MSU on an athletic scholarship as a walk-in.? There was very little recruiting in the mid-70’s, even though I was a member of Fordson’s volleyball team that won the first ever Michigan High School Athletic Association Class A State Championship tournament for girls’ volleyball in 1976!

At MSU, we had several hundred fans.? Maybe.? The following year we played our home games at the famed Jenison Fieldhouse, where our fan based slowly increased to several thousand.? Yes, we had locker rooms in the same building as the men’s basketball team – the NCAA National Champions in 1979 which featured the prolific players Magic Johnson and Greg Kelser!

This weekend is Alumni Volleyball weekend at MSU.? I had the opportunity to attend Friday’s match vs. Duke, which Duke won 3-0.? We did NOT break an attendance record - there were several thousand fans - but the Spartan Marching Band and Cheerleading Squad were there to cheer us on!

I attended the match with 2 former college teammates and roommates, Karen and MJ.? Several other alumnae were in attendance, including the legendary Kathy DeBoer.?

Kathy was a member of the volleyball team in?1975 and 1976, leading the team to an 82-13 record along with a pair of Big Ten titles and two trips to the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) national tournament.?

In 1989 DeBoer was awarded the Michigan State Varsity S Club Dr. Nell Jackson Outstanding Alumna award, presented annually to a Spartan alumna whose career has been distinguished not only by outstanding professional accomplishments, but also by an exceptional record of community service.? She was inducted in the Michigan State Athletics Hall of Fame in 2022.? And, this year, MSU’s annual Auto-Owners Insurance Spartan Invitational was renamed the Kathy DeBoer Invitational presented by Auto-Owners Insurance.? The match was exciting, but the best part of the match was spending time with Kathy, at true pioneer and trailblazer in women’s sport.

Yes, our time is now.?

Sports participation helps girls grow up healthy and confident, helps young female leaders rise, and helps C-suite leaders succeed.? Sports teaches us how to fall down and how to get back up and try again.? It’s the getting back up and trying again that builds resilience, which is the basis of confidence.? Almost every volleyball player I ever played with hit their chin on the floor while learning how to dive for the ball.? And, we all have tiny scars from the stiches in our chins to prove it!? Did it hurt?? A little.? But it became a source of pride to master diving on the gymnasium floor safely to reach the ball before it hit the floor!?

Did you know that, according to a recent EY Insights report – Why a female athlete should be your next leader - their research shows that 94% of C-suite women have played sports, demonstrating that sport participation can propel them into successful business careers.? Why?? Because when we enter the boardroom, women athletes have a unique advantage by thriving on competition, determination, and a strong work ethic.?

In all, Fortune estimates that 95 percent of its Fortune 500 CEOs played sports. While only 6 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs are women, the proportion of women CEOs who were athletes is similar—90 percent of them played sports at some point, and 54 percent played sports at the university level.? I’m grateful I am one of them.

Our time is NOW. Our future is bright.

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