Perception is everything

Edits on story about girl's basketball coach, Jen Kerns, in Spokane left off comments on gender equality and how it applies to girls and team sports

I have three grandchildren – two grandson’s and one granddaughter. My son’s kids, 13-year-old, Korbin, and 10-year-old, Isabella, both started playing basketball when they were about 4 to 5 years old. Although I consider myself well-versed in gender roles and the inequalities in our culture I was pretty surprised to see it play out in the differences between my grandson and granddaughter in sports at such a young age. While my grandson displayed the stereotypical male traits of aggression and competition, my granddaughter on the other hand, was the opposite, practically tiptoeing around the court, reluctant to compete for the ball, and generally averse to playing aggressively.  

In other words, she had to learn how to compete while it seemed natural for her brother to use those skills from the get-go. I remember laughing at the girls in their reticence and seeming lack of confidence on the court, and commenting these thoughts to my son … who didn’t really seem to relate to what I was talking about at the time.

Quinn, Isabella, Kennedy and Maycee — 4th grade Spokane Dawgs won a tournament at ITZ Sports in Spokane. Isabella Shives, second from left is my granddaughter.

Having graduated high school in 1973,Title IX, the most commonly used name for the landmark federal civil rights law that was enacted as part of the Education Amendments of 1972, essentially came after my education was complete. I didn’t play any sports in school, except in P.E., nor did most of my fellow female students.  

Fast forward to the present and both grandkids are still playing basketball in different recreational clubs. When my granddaughter had a fundraiser last November, I was happy to go and support her. A woman named Jen Kerns, introduced as a girls’ coach in her club, spoke to the group of parents, grandparents and friends about how important it is for girls to play team sports.

When I heard her speak, I knew she had a keen awareness about what many people don’t … that gender roles and expectations for girls are dramatically different than for boys in society as well as in sports. Gender roles (a set of socially accepted behaviors and attitudes deemed appropriate or desirable for individuals based on their sex) for girls are typically set between the ages of 3- to 5-years-old.

Now, Kerns didn’t specifically talk about any of that. What she did say was that girls at this age need to be empowered, challenged and encouraged to overcome stereotypes that persist in the culture. The more she spoke, the more I realized what a leader she was in the community, and later I learned she was also a senior police officer in the Spokane Police Department. She also talked about how expensive it is for parents in our pay-to-play system which keeps out those in lower socio-economic levels. I think she also mentioned the rates of girls dropping out of sports is double that of boys dropping out.

According to the Women’s Sports Foundation, by age 14, many girls are dropping out of sports at two times the rate of boys.¹Through more than 25 years of research, the WSF has identified key factors which contribute to this alarming statistic.

Those factors include lack of access to sports, safety and transportation issues, social stigma, decreased quality of experience, cost, and surprisingly, a lack of positive role models.

It’s been well documented that participation in sports benefits girls and women by teaching important life skills like teamwork, leadership, self-confidence, positive body image, as well as increased communication and trust between parents and children.

I was so impressed by Kerns that I pitched a story to a Spokesman Review editor and got the go-ahead for a feature story on Kerns as a leader in the community as both a coach and police officer. When I looked her up and then interviewed her, I was stunned to learn about her life over the past 47 years. After she attended Washington State University on a full ride basketball scholarship, she had played and coached professional ball overseas for 17 years in 41 countries, living through some dangerous and tumultuous episodes during her time there. Those experiences benefitted her and allowed her to rise to leadership positions both in coaching and in community policing.

As I alluded to in my last post here on Substack, the story on local girls basketball coach and senior police officer, Jen Kerns, ran on the front page of the Spokesman Review a week ago today. Here’s a link to the story.

Kerns, on the right, poses with her 5^th grade team of girls’ basketball players. The day the story ran I read it on the page and was troubled when I realized how much had been edited out of the story. Don’t get me wrong, I was super excited that the story ran on page 1, in the general scheme of things. It’s normally not that easy to get a page one story when you’re a freelancer, and I’ve had several run in this daily newspaper. I was initially grateful and then my emotions took a downward turn. The story I wrote and the reason I wrote it was not what people were reading. Don’t get me wrong. I was happy with the story for the most part. But the basic premise was that we do not have gender equality. Full stop. And one of the ways to empower little girls to change their expectations from the stereo types is to allow them to play team sports – with coaches who empower and encourage them instead of belittling them and making them feel less than.

Here's what the editor took out of the story:

Kerns truly believes in the power of team sports – especially for girls. “Almost everything in basketball relates to real life,” she added. “That’s one of the biggest things between boys and girls when girls are off the court right before practice and right after practice. Girls are talking a mile a minute; they’re little hens in a hen house and then when you get them on the court it’s unnatural for them to direct traffic or to tell another teammate where they should be if they’re out of place.”

“When guys walk on the court, they’re the loudest people out there. All of them,” she said. That difference for her, translates to coaching the girls in ways different from the norm. Whe puts the girls in a place where they have to be the leader of the drill, or the leader of the practice. She encourages them to speak and lead with confidence in a loud voice, making eye contact when they talk.

“For the girls, competing with other girls can be difficult,” Kerns added. “The aggressive gene isn’t necessarily in them like it is for little boys. It’s important to put them in exercises and scenarios on the basketball court … where they can be shown when to be aggressive and challenge themselves.”

“They need to know you care about them and that creates trust. I aways go back to trust and care,” she added. “It’s unbelievable the development that happens when you pour your heart and soul into these kids and the aha moments that you can see them going through; then they’re proud of themselves. Those are the greatest moments in coaching.”

It says everything about what good coaching does for little girls. I hope you read the story as well as the part that was left out. Awareness is power.