WNBA uses crowdsourcing to pick new name for Tulsa

I was impressed when I visited the WNBA Facebook Fan page today. They’re using crowdsourcing techniques to have the audience pick the next name for the new team in Tulsa, Arizona. This is what I saw:

 

Very cool. This type of technique makes me feel engaged. There’s a direct call to action, and I feel like I’m a part of this “naming” process. Looks like other fans enjoyed this functionality as well (92 comments, 142 people “liking” the post by showing their support).

When you click the bit.ly link (smart to use Bit.ly because you can literally track the link’s performance in a variety of networks), you’re brought to a WNBA page and asked to fill in some personal information (a little too much personal information, but I was willing since I respect their organization).

Then, I could vote. I picked Tulsa Tempo. Who would you pick?

Note: This blog post is part of a series discussing my experiences with social media as they relate to advocacy issues that highly affect the women’s sport sphere. This is an assignment for a class I’m enrolled in as part of John’s Hopkins University’s Digital Communications program.

Reading: Millenial Makeover

This blog post is part of my ongoing weekly series discussing the role of social media and female athletics. It’s also a class requirement for a course I’m taking at John’s Hopkins University.

This week’s reading is called Millenial Makeover: MySpace, YouTube, and the Future of American Politics by Morley Winograd & Michael Hais.

This book is a story about me.

Why? Because I was born in 1985. I’m part of Generation Y -  I was born within the timeframe of 1982-2003.

Winograd & Hais refer to me as part of the “civic” generation -   my peers and I actually outnumber my “boomer” parents (by 10 million). We helped nominate and elect President Barack Obama, and, according to these authors, we will transform and dominate politics for the next 40 years.

Why?

Because we’re more engaged than any other population. “The attacks of 9/11 and the growing threat of terrorism and Islamic extremism” - are making us “pay attention” to things more.  Pop Culture is capturing the “comedy” of our attention, and the technology wave is at our fingertips…. and we’re using it… every day, to create change.

Read more

Tampax: A suitable sponsor for female athletes?

I continued to read Joe Favorito’s blog today and also saw his post about Tampax. I have such strong feelings on this subject that I just couldn’t resist sharing it with my readers.

Favorito’s post is titled Great Example of How Far Women’s Brands Have Come… For the Better… Serena Williams and Tampax. He told a simple story:

In 1997, as the WTA Tour was suffering finincially, and they were presented with a unique opportunity to have Tampax sponsor the tour.  At the time, Tampax was looking to “take the category out of the traditional area and attach itself to vibrant, global accessible female athletes who could grow with the brand.”

The deal never happened because the athletes and advisors feared “a feminine hygiene product as its title sponsor would cause tennis not to be taken seriously as a sports brand and would slow the growth of the sport into the mainstream.”

Today, however, 12 years later, the deal went through. Favorito says this change is remnicent of a new female athlete image, “Women’s athletes are powerful role models and health and well being for women and girls is much more prevalent an issue than ever before.”

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New sites with high school sports coverage: Will they have a positive or negative impact on women?

I was reading Joe Favorito’s Sports Marketing and PR Roundup blog and immediately took interest in a recent post titled Is 24/7 High School Media Coverage Worthwile?

In his post, Favorito discusses recent trends for brands to capture a “younger audience and families” in coverage of  high school sports. He discusses a trend of  “the consumer flock[ing]  more to local coverage than national coverage these days, and the more niche the better.”

This got me thinking about my experiences as an athlete in high school. The local papers were literally “all over us,” and the more successful your team was, the more media coverage you recieved.

Granted, the papers almost always featured more male sports news than female (which, as you know, is typical) but we always had a voice, and one that was heard. People (kids AND adults, male AND female) in my local geographic area literally read the sports section every day. People would frequently approach me to say congratulations, and I’d never even met them before. They knew me from the paper.  And yes, I was a female athlete.

Why did this happen? Because the papers gave us attention. It’s also important to note that specific reporters had a vested interest in their assignments: covering the female teams.

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Female athletes head to college and beyond

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Dads: Important role models for female athletes

While I know that not all female athletes have fathers (nor do they need them to be successful), I find it important on this Father’s Day to recognize the positive impact dads can have on the female athlete experience.

First, it’s important to point out that men make up the majority of female athlete coaches. While I understand the Women’s Sports Foundation’s POV on this issue continues to (rightfully) focus upon the lack of women in the profession (which is a problem), I also believe it’s important to talk about the men who do coach girls. Often times, these men are dads: supportive role models who have a vested interest in a woman’s future as an athlete.

Take, for instance, fathers like Richard Williams, the father of Serena and Venus, two of the most well-known tennis players in the world. Serena and Venus’ careers started on the Compton public tennis courts, where her father encouraged their development.

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Twitter: A huge hit in sports, especially for women

When Jayda Evans of the Seattle Times called me a few weeks ago and asked me what I thought about Twitter’s role in the future of women’s sports, I told her that it could only be a good thing.

Jayda, a Seattle Times blogger and writer, later published an article titled “Sports go mad for online pastime with Twitter.”

I love how Jayda wrote this article. Instead of focusing upon huge Twitter celebrities like Shaquille O’Neal and Lance Armstrong, she gave some credit to the ladies who have recently been stepping up to the plate, including Natalie Gulbis (@natalie_gulbis) and over 13 WNBA players. Read more

Former NCAA athletes killed in NY plane crash

This is awful…

Just read via an NCAA update e-mail that two former NCAA Division III athletes were killed in the crash of Continental Connection Flight 3407 last night in Buffalo, NY.

As a former Division III athlete who competed in basketball against Rowan University, this kind-of hits home for me. Also, I went to The College of New Jersey, which is right down the road from Princeton.

Even though I didn’t know either these ladies personally, my heart goes out to them, their families and their teammates. This is truly a tragedy, one that nobody likes to hear about.

From the NCAA…

Lorin Maurer, manager of the Athletic Friends program at Princeton and a former Rowan swimmer who served as an NCAA promotions and events intern during 2003-04.

Madeline “Maddy” Loftus, a former ice hockey student-athlete at Buffalo State and St. Mary’s (Minnesota), were reported as being among 50 victims of the Continental Airlines crash in Clarence Center, New York.

Maurer, 30, was an all-New Jersey Athletic Conference swimmer and team captain at Rowan. After that, she was a graduate student in sport management and a women’s administration intern at Florida before joining the NCAA branding and communications group as a promotions and events intern.

Loftus attended Buffalo State during her freshman and sophomore years, then transferred in 2004 to St. Mary’s, where she played her junior and senior seasons. She served as a member of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference’s student-athlete advisory committee in 2005-06, and was instrumental in starting the Cardinal Athletic Council, a student-athlete group at St. Mary’s.

On behalf of the entire women’s sports population who was raised and competed for the NCAA in New Jersey, I’d like to thank these women for their contribution to their sports.

A salute to female athletes in 2008

Here’s a special treat – a homemade video that I created with Jane from Pretty Tough this week. I hope you like it! Please feel free to embed or slap on your Facebook page.

These women worked hard this year, and they certainly deserve the credit.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQUog8xS2FA

“Game Changers:” Nike’s innovative social movement for women in sports

I came across a great contest this week… an online social movement for women in sports.

The campaign is called “Game Changers” and asks participants to identify the most innovative solutions to the challenges facing women in sport today.

Between November 12, 2008 and February 11, 2009, Game Changers is inviting anyone and everyone to propose a way to leverage sport for positive social change in the lives of girls and women. The criteria is based upon innovation, social impact and sustainability.

The prize: “15.000 Euros will be awarded as part of a one year fellowship contract with Women Win to a person associated with a programme or initiative that positively changes the lives of women and girls in their community through sport.”

The judging panel includes Amy Wambach from (U.S. Women’s Soccer), Jil Ker Conway (director of Colgate-Palmolive Co., and Nike, Inc), Sheila C. Johnson (only African-American woman to have ownership in three professional sports teams), Lombe Mwambwa (National Organisation of Women in Sport, the National Sports Council of Zambia) and Tanni Grey-Thompson ( Paralympics medalist). Love the selection!

I have to give serious props to Nike and Ashoka for sponsoring this. I think it’s a great idea. If you’re not familiar with Ashoka, they’re the global association of the world’s leading social entrepreneurs—men and women with system changing solutions for the world’s most urgent social problems.

However, I have to say – I’m a bit disappointed that there are only 220 nominations and 55 entries to date. Where is everyone? This is an international competition!

Also, where’s the outreach to female sports bloggers? I haven’t seen anything in the media about this. If we’re trying to make social change, people need to know about it, right? There are plenty of bloggers in our community who would support this.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUo13iX03N8&eurl=http://sportforchange.changemakers.net/en-us&feature=player_embedded

Regardless, as I said, this is a great competition and addresses a problem that is not often discussed in society. Also, it’s important to note that Nike has made incredible contributions on social change as it relates to sport. For example, the Let Me Play campaign (and site) are highly effective in raising awareness for social change as it relates to gender, socioeconomic status, global warming. The site features interactive video and incredible stories from “Game Changers” around the world.

But the Game Changers contest for female athletes is particularly significant, given a historically consistent lack of opportunity internationally. This is a cause that female athletes and organizations around the world should support and participate in.

I checked out the entries so far, and I was really impressed with what’s going on. Here are some of my favorites:

SACRENA Teenage Mothers Soccer Academy (Kenya) – Teenage mothers both in and out schools play soccer league,develop transitional period to play from grassroots,national team to world cup for change.
Ballin’ Divas on the Move (U.S.) – Our goal is to help school-age girls to develop self-esteem, curb drug and alcohol abuse, prevent teen pregnancy and ensure high school graduation and admission into college. Our emphasis is teaching life skills and we do it through amateur sports including basketball and other sports like volleyball, softball, karate, dance,…etc in the future

BoxGirls (Cameron) - Boxing improves girls’ strength and resilience and allows them to better negotiate the urban environment. Boxgirls train as a team to face individual challeneges alone. The skills they learn in the ring bring them further in their schooling, family and career.

Like I said… very cool! I hope to see many more entries in the coming months, and I highly encourage those reading this to post about this contest, enter it, discuss it and promote it.

NCAA’s “On Her Game” is right on point

If you’re a female athlete and you only read one industry publication  this month, check out NCAA’s feature, On Her Game – an excellently written editorial about modern female involvement in collegiate athletics.

Author Michelle Brutlag Hosick does a great job of explaining how female student-athletes are distinguishable in 2008.

Brutlag says,

They are female student-athletes in 2008.

They are radically different from the female student-athletes who charted new ground when Title IX created previously unimagined opportunities in 1972.

They respect their forebears, but they stop short of reverence. They want women to have coaching opportunities, but they want the best coaching they can get for themselves, regardless of which gender provides it. They are comfortable in defining what constitutes a quality athletics experience – and then making it happen.

They are, in many ways, a break from the past.

Brutlag goes on to discuss outside competition, comparisons to male athletes, and team integration. There’s a great video to accompany this, as well, located here.

This piece is an excellent read for those who may be unfamiliar with new movements of modern female athletic culture. Great job, Michelle!

Wendell Wallace, Sports Blog on USA Softball

I came across and commented on a blog post that pissed me off today. Here we have a guy named Wendell Wallace who writes a blog called The Arena, where he expresses his opinions about sports. Unfortunately, they’re not exactly the opinions everyone wants to hear.

Yesterday, Wendell posted about the USA Women’s Softball team, who has been beating up on their competition and is now in the medal rounds, fighting for the gold. But their talent and success doesn’t seem to be inspiring Wendell to write about them. It has more to do with their looks.

He starts by saying statements that could mistakenly be taken as positive remarks about “class” that female athletes possess on the field.

” During these Olympics though, I have found myself watching the USA woman’s softball team, beating up on their competition like they were impersonating the USA men’s basketball team. I enjoy the pace of the women’s game;the women aren’t spitting every other second, or playing with themselves on every swing”

Then he goes on to show his true colors as he says,

“(even though, if Jennie Finch wants to play with herself, THAT’S ALRIGHT WITH ME!!!).”

The reason he started blogging? To be a talk show host on sports talk radio.  Lofty goals for a guy who thinks so much of us women. In fact, he thinks so highly of us that this is what he had to say…

“I hope they’re opportunities for women to play sports professionally in America and make a ton of money doing it until the end of time. Saying all that, you still couldn’t get me to watch a woman’s (fill in the sport here) if they were playing naked in my backyard (for the most part!!!).”

If I were hiring for a sports talk radio host, the first think I’d do is check someone’s blog to see their views on a variety of sports subjects, just to get an idea on whether or not they’re capable of saying something stupid that could get my station in trouble. Maybe that’s why he’s still looking?

This is just more evidence that male sports bloggers SERIOUSLY need to stop covering our “asses” and start covering our athletes.