At Rosati-Kain Academy, our athletic mission is to empower young women by strengthening their mental and physical wellness while teaching life skills that build character, confidence, and leadership abilities. We believe that sports are more than just a game; they are an opportunity for growth. That is why every student at RKA is encouraged to participate in athletics, and we offer the opportunity of athletic participation for physical education credits. Through commitment, accountability, and leadership, we use sport to build strong, confident, and compassionate young women.
According to the Women's Sports Foundation, young women derive life-changing psychological, physiological, and sociological benefits from playing sports. As both a matter of health and wellbeing, and even extending advantages into the workplace, sports help to develop the life skills needed to lead and serve the world.
Below are some of the advantages cited by the Women's Sports Foundation:
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Girls and women who play sports have higher levels of confidence and self-esteem and lower levels of depression.
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Girls and women who play sports have a more positive body image and experience higher states of psychological well-being than girls and women who do not play sports.
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High school girls who play sports are less likely to be involved in an unintended pregnancy, more likely to get better grades in school, and more likely to graduate than girls who do not play sports.
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As little as four hours of exercise a week may reduce a teenage girl’s risk of breast cancer by up to 60%; breast cancer is a disease that afflicts one out of every eight American women. (Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 1994)
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Forty percent of women over the age of 50 suffer from osteoporosis, or brittle bones (Osteoporosis, 1996). None of us should want our daughters to repeat the experiences of generations of women—our mothers and grandmothers—who were not permitted to play sports or encouraged to participate in weight-bearing exercises that are necessary to establish bone mass.
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Sport is where boys have traditionally learned about teamwork, goal-setting, the pursuit of performance excellence, and other achievement-oriented behaviors, which are critical skills necessary for success in the workplace. In an economic environment where the quality of our children’s lives will be dependent on two-income families, our daughters cannot be less prepared for the highly competitive workplace than our sons. It is no accident that 80% of the female executives at Fortune 500 companies identified themselves as former “tomboys”—having played sports.