Alberta School Athletic Association - Beyond Boundaries: Women in Sport

On National Women and Girls in Sport Day, Wednesday, February 7th, 2024, the Alberta Schools Athletic Association (ASAA) hosted its first annual Beyond Boundaries: Women in Sport Workshop & Luncheon to celebrate and acknowledge the hard work and dedication female coaches have given to student athletes across Alberta. The workshop was a huge success, with 95 teachers and coaches in attendance. The attendees left this event feeling supported, acknowledged, and inspired to continue making a difference in their respective schools and teams.

Led by ASAA Executive Committee member, Dawn-Marie and the ASAA Women in Sport planning committee, the event is a stepping stone to guide the ASAA in developing a full conference for women who volunteer in high school sport: coaches, officials, and administrators. 

This inaugural workshop focused on:

• Solution based round table discussions with various topics. 
• Implementation of research to guide strategies to support and recruit more women into coaching.
• Acknowledging and inspiring the leaders within the women in sport community, and enhancing opportunities for relationships within the community.

The event stakeholders included women coaching high school teams, academics working in the field of women in coaching/sport administration, high school athletic directors, and others. The vision for this event in future years is to build an event that will move around Alberta, thereby opening the door for women across the province to meet and collaborate to reduce barriers in female sport participation in Alberta High Schools.

The feedback we received from participants included:

• “This event was planned so wonderfully. Best professional development I have ever been too. I will definitely attend again in the future.” 
• “Huge Thank You to all the event organizers for your thoughtfulness!! I have not felt this appreciated for being a coach in years!” 
• “I loved attending this event. As a new teacher, sometimes it feels like a scary place to go into coaching, but I really love sports and seeing that that love for sports and kids can put you in a place to network with such amazing women is really inspirational.” 
• “I feel empowered and re-inspired to be there for other women and girls”
•  “My biggest takeaway was that there is value in connection. Many women were facing similar situations as coaches/athletic directors and having a network to fall back on can provide solutions/ideas for my own situations.”