How do those old playground rhymes go? Oh yeah, like this:
“Girls rule; boys drool.” Or the ever-classic “boys go to Jupiter to get more stupider; girls go to college to get more knowledge.”
But between those days of name calling-equality underneath the monkey bars and now, a lot happened: girls got cooties, boys got “tough” and sports became a “masculine” thing to do.
It’s often the case that women are overlooked when it comes to sports, both on an individual and larger scale. Who here follows the Women’s National Basketball Association? Women’s Professional Soccer?
Not many, huh. And that’s indicative of a certain culture at large.
Men’s associations and organizations are revered and watched by millions. They are endlessly scrutinized by the media and the public.
Women’s professional sports are lucky to get a blurb in the sports sections of a local newspaper.
But that won’t be the case at Concordia College, not if the women’s Cobber teams have anything to say or do about it.
Recently, the women athletes of Concordia have been on quite a tier. The basketball team has sealed a third-place rank in the MIAC playoffs, finishing their season with a 17-8 record. The hockey team is on its way to its MIAC playoffs and a probable second-place seating in that tournament. The women’s swim team earned a couple of top 12 individual finishes in their MIAC championship meet. And who can forget about the volleyball and soccer teams’ success earlier this year? The cherry on top is the other countless individual successes in a variety of sports.
So what makes the women’s teams and athletes distinct at Concordia? What makes them so successful?
While it’s impossible to generalize for all individuals and each sport, there are a couple factors that may be important above all.
One: historically, things have been good for Concordia’s women teams. In the past few years they have cultivated several championships (both national and MIAC), as well as numerous individual awards.
This leads to something else. The Cobber women teams have “it,” the “x-factor.” Whatever you call it, they have it. And one thing is for certain: through that, they have created a culture of success. It’s what the players, coaches and people expect. It’s just what is.
This reflects back to the good ol’ days when the girls sang “anything you can do, I can do better” while the boys pretended to be tough on the playing field. At least now, those lyrics are feeling truer than ever here at Concordia College.
It’s just a shame girls still have cooties.
Bobby Brunhuber is a sophomore from Backus, Minn. studying English-Writing and Global Studies, with minors in Sociology and Spanish. He is a Sports Writer for the 2010-2011 Concordian. Bobby’s idol is Indiana Jones. He is an avid soccer fan, has an irrational fear of snakes, and an irrational obsession with LOST.
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