While it may seem like playing a sport is a natural part of growing up, not every kid gets the opportunity. Sometimes it’s because the chosen sport isn’t well-established in the area, and sometimes it’s cost prohibitive to participate.
To give as many girls who wanted to play basketball the chance to do that, Theresa Kendrick helped create Cal Swoosh, a club league noted for its efforts to bring basketball to more youth.
“It’s fun and we love it,” Kendrick said.
The group started about 12 years ago with a group of girls who wanted to play basketball but didn’t have anywhere to play. “These girls were really talented but there wasn’t anything here at the time.”
They organized a game and the girls won. “Then the parents got really excited,” Kendrick said. The determination to build a team and create opportunities to play basketball was born from that enthusiasm, and Cal Swoosh had begun.
Kendrick, who also volunteers as assistant coach for the women’s team at Cuesta College, wanted a program that could reach as many girls as possible. From the start the group was all-inclusive. Anyone who wanted to play could play. “We don’t turn anybody away regardless of financial ability to pay,” she said.
Through the years, the program has had girls from all income levels participate in the program. But there are some players who stand out in Kendrick’s mind because of their level of need at the start, and how much they ultimately benefitted from playing.
Kendrick remembered one girl whose family had limited means. The girl’s family was so financially strapped that the girl would sneak condiments from restaurants into a napkin and take them home. The girl started with Cal Swoosh in the second grade and remained in the program through high school, before going on to play basketball at the university level. She still keeps in touch with Kendrick on a frequent basis.
It’s stories like that that inspire Kendrick, and prove the need for the program.
Most important to Cal Swoosh representatives and coaches is the benefit the game itself provides to the girls.
The game is important for the obvious reasons: fun, physical fitness, socializing. But it also teaches invaluable skills that the girls carry on through life, Kendrick believes.
“I think it helps them learn life skills, leadership and communication, and how to deal with adversity,” Kendrick said.
She said that any club sport helps provide an atmosphere in which the girls learn problem-solving skills that they will have to use when they enter the workforce and deal with co-workers.
She added that not all sports offer the same atmosphere, however. “They don’t have the same goals as ours. We’re more about development. Whether you lose or win, did you see progress?” she said. “Even though we win a lot, that’s not our goal,” she added with a laugh.
The Women’s Sports Foundation backs up those assertions. In its report, “Her Life Depends on It III,” released in May 2015, the foundation revealed statistics that show benefits to social, physical, and educational well-being in girls who played sports.
Cal Swoosh is doing its share to make sure plenty of players on the Central Coast reap those benefits. They’ve got 100 players in the program from Paso Robles to Lompoc. There are even some from Santa Barbara and as far away as Bakersfield.
Coaches in each of those cities hold practice with the girls getting them ready for tournament play. The girls play a local tournament once or twice a month. Often those tournaments are in Paso Robles or San Luis Obispo or Santa Barbara, but they also travel fairly frequently to places like Visalia.
Kendrick said that in the beginning the girls had to travel to LA for tournaments, but the travel was a hardship on some parents. So they began inviting those teams to travel to the Central Coast and compete, and the program grew.
In addition to the girls teams, Cal Swoosh, also has an elite team of high school girls. The program allows the girls to play in big tournaments in places like Oregon and Las Vegas, for an opportunity to get noticed by college scouts.
Kendrick said it can cost up to $3,000 for a student to play for a travel club team that will offer her exposure to scouts. Yet many parents sacrifice to do it in order to get their player that exposure—and possible scholarships. It’s a tempting prospect when you consider that there is $2.7 billion in athletic scholarships distributed each year by Division I and Division II schools, according to the NCAA website.
However, Cal Swoosh helps provide its players the same exposure for a more affordable rate.
“Our program is one of the very few that kids can participate in and not spend that money but still get that same exposure,” Kendrick said.
In fact, three of the program’s players now play basketball for Cal Poly. She said those girls still come back and help with the younger teams from time to time, and occasionally coach.
“Everyone gives back,” she said.
Kendrick added that many of the coaches are returning players, and that about 90 percent of the coaches are women.
Because they don’t turn any player away, the group holds a lot of fundraisers. The next fundraiser is the sixth annual Los Alamos Old Days Stampede 5K run & walk, which takes place at 9:30 a.m. on Sept. 25 at Ferrini Park on Bell Street in Los Alamos. The event takes place in conjunction with the town’s Old Days celebration and will finish just prior to the Old Days Parade.
Participants get a T-Shirt, and trophies will go to the first place overall male and female finishers along with medals to the top three finishers in seven divisions. Cost is $25 with proceeds going to the nonprofit part of Cal Swoosh, which helps under-privileged youth participate in the program.
For information about registering for the fundraiser run, email Coy Kendrick at calswooshrunning@gmail.com. To learn more about Cal Swoosh visit calswoosh.com.
Contact Editor Shelly Cone at scone@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Sep 15-22, 2016.
