The Bay Area is rewriting the playbook for women’s sports. This summer alone, the Golden State Valkyries became the first WNBA franchise to make the playoffs in its inaugural season and sold out all 23 of their home games at Chase Center. The National Women’s Soccer League’s (NWSL) Bay FC set the single highest-attended event in U.S. women’s professional sports history. And Stanford’s softball team hosted a game in Stanford football stadium and broke the NCAA’s single-game attendance record. Together, these milestones are energizing a whole generation of fans and fueling the aspirations of Menlo’s athletes.
Sophomore girls basketball player Elise Darling has been to three Valkyries games and follows the team’s social media pages. “It’s really cool just to see women’s sports at a higher level in the Bay,” Darling said. “Their success opens up new routes for girls like me who are playing and thinking about the future. When the fans come out to watch, they’re seeing themselves in these teams, and I think that young athletes love to see themselves in
the players.”
Junior girls basketball player Sophia Longinidis owns season tickets to the Valkyries and has attended five games this season. “I’m supporting women’s sports a lot more because there wasn’t a pro women’s team in the Bay Area. So now that there is one, I can actually go out and support,” she said.
Longinidis has been struck by the support fans have shown the Valkyries. “I feel more connected because I am a female basketball player, but you also just see a lot of energy from everyone at the games,” Longinidis said. “Everyone’s there, not only to watch the sport, but to support the women who have worked so hard to have a filled gym.”
Bay FC goalkeeper Emmie Allen and midfielder Jamie Sheperd have noticed the increasing energy around women’s sports. Oracle Park, usually home to the San Francisco Giants, hosted over 40,000 fans on Aug. 23, for Bay FC’s record-breaking NWSL matchup against the Washington Spirit. “Just to know that people are willing to come out and pay the price of a ticket to come to watch us and support us was a pretty cool feeling,” Allen said. “I’ll never forget that day playing in that stadium, how electric and loud it was, and just the community. The Bay Area showed out for us.”
Allen has seen a big difference between women’s soccer now and in the past. “Now, fast forward 10 years, and there’s a crazy difference between salaries, attendance and overall treatment,” Allen said. “[The change] is only because of the people who came before us, so they really fought for what we have now.”
Sheperd, who grew up in Utah when there wasn’t a major presence of women’s sports, appreciates her direct role in the recent growth. “To be here for Bay FC’s first year in the Bay Area and just, like, to see all the fans and the support for these amazing, strong women, it’s pretty cool to be a part of that.”
Allen and Sheperd both want to keep up the energy around women’s soccer and use it to build a community that inspires young Bay Area athletes. “I just hope that I can be half of what my role models were to somebody else, and just be a good example for all the young girls out there who have big dreams,” Allen said. “Other female athletes accomplishing their dreams showed me that I could do that as well, and that’s what I try to do with my platform.”
Kassie Gray founded Bay Area nonprofit Female Footballers, which strives to educate and empower female athletes through mental performance skills, mentorship and leadership development. “When I was a kid, there were no women’s teams to watch, and no female coaches,” Gray said. “Right now, women’s sports are in a movement, not just a moment. We are growing the media and publicity side that has been lacking for a long time.”
Gray hopes her mentorship program that connects professional women soccer players with current young players will help develop leadership and mental skills to support players. “For female players, it is important to have role models because when athletes can see it, they believe they can be it,” Gray said. Sophomore girls soccer players Everleigh Porter and McKinley Harding are a part of the Female Footballers and said the program has helped
their development.
Allen believes women athletes deserve the same pay and lifestyle as their male counterparts. “At the end of the day, we’re putting in the same amount of work and the same amount of hours,” she said. “I hope that where we can go as female athletes is just being able to live the same lifestyle as a male athlete.”
