BLACKSBURG – The 34th annual National Girls & Women in Sports Day will be held Wednesday, Feb. 5, and in preparation for that, Virginia Tech Athletics plans on using the Virginia Tech-Miami women's basketball game Sunday as the start of a month-long celebration of its female student-athletes and former female student-athletes who served as pioneers for the current successes in women's sports at Tech.
National Girls & Women in Sports Day, sponsored by the Women's Sports Foundation, was created to recognize the accomplishments and impact of female athletes, while also empowering future females to get moving, reap the benefits of physical activity, and push past their limits both in sports and in life. The confidence, strength and character gained through sports are the tools that women need to become strong leaders in today's world.
Tech athletics department officials have several events planned as part of the celebration related to National Girls & Women in Sports Day. Those plans start Sunday at the Virginia Tech-Miami women's basketball game taking place at Cassell Coliseum. All youth will receive complimentary access to the game by simply wearing their uniforms, and the department plans on recognizing both Virginia Tech female student-athletes and local female youth athletes at halftime of the game.
Also, Virginia Tech student-athletes will be on hand at the National Girls & Women in Sports Day photo booth on the concourse near section 1, and youth girls are invited onto the court following the game to take a photo with the Hokies.
In addition, athletics department officials want to reach out into the community and plan on offering a limited number of local girls ages 9-12 interested in sports jobs an opportunity to shadow certain employees within the athletics department during the game. Parents can sign up their daughters by clicking on this link.
On Feb. 5, Tech athletics department administrators will hand out of free smoothies to student-athletes and staff members between 2:30-4:30 p.m. in the Nutrition Oasis, a room in Cassell Coliseum used for providing fuel for student-athletes before, during and after practice.
Plus, there will be an increased social media presence on Tech's individual sports accounts that pays homage to both current female student-athletes and former ones – and to some of the memorable moments in Tech athletics history provided by these women. Academic accomplishments will be recognized, too.
Tech Athletics also has National Girls & Women in Sports Day events scheduled around the Tech women's tennis team's match against Winthrop on Sunday, the home track and field and swimming and diving meets on Friday, Feb. 7, and the lacrosse match vs. Radford on Feb. 19.
In addition to celebrating the accomplishments of women in sports, the Women's Sports Foundation also wants to protect athletics opportunities for women that provide lifelong benefits. College athletics certainly provides many of those opportunities.
At Virginia Tech, the athletics department offers nearly 300 participation opportunities for more than 200 female student-athletes through its 22 varsity sports. The university started sponsoring women's varsity sports in 1976 by elevating women's basketball and women's swimming to varsity status and have added at least one female varsity sport in three of the past four decades. The most recent addition came in 2015 with the sponsoring of women's golf as a varsity sport.
To learn more on National Girl & Women in Sports Day and the Women's Sports Foundation, and how it supports female athletes, please click here.
