What does girls basketball have to do with appreciating young men? Pilar Corder of Snohomish County shares a positive experience she had with boys while playing for her high school basketball team.
Above is a 2-minute video of Pilar Corder’s story. Below is an edited transcript of the video.
‘We’re not against each other’ (teaser)
The experience showed that any people – boys, girls, men, women – can empower and encourage one another, if we don’t have this mentality that we have to be against one another.
The Boys Supported Us
My high school was a small private school that was very active in sports. Everybody was on a team.
During my sophomore year I was the youngest on the girls varsity basketball team, and we made it into the playoffs and were doing really well. The boys team, on the other hand, didn’t do so well that year.
After we got into the quarterfinals, the boys of our school were really proud and showed a lot of support. Any guys who could drive loaded their cars up with people, came to the games, and cheered us on. Our team was doing better and better!
The guys told everybody to bring a red shirt and decorate it. They led a pep rally and had everyone bring their decorated shirts to the next game. The players on the team were even autographing people’s shirts, as if we were big shots!
Obviously the school supported our team and our successes, but internally you could see it was the senior, junior, and sophomore boys who were really rallying for us and cheering us on.
Don’t raise yourself up by lowering others
I think the thing that stuck with me was that you had these young men – boys really at that time – who were selfless in that they could have been bitter, like “Well, our basketball season is over. On to the next thing.” And I’m sure they were a little bit. But they had such pride in their female friends, the girls they grew up together with who were succeeding in their own right. They were proud and really just wanted to support us.
This is an example of how we don’t have to be at war with one another. Men and women were created equally. We just have differences, and differences aren’t bad, despite what the world says. You’re unique. I’m unique. Let’s take the things that we have and build and empower one another instead of trying to tear one another down or trying to feel like we have to lower others to raise ourselves up.
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