It was a day of celebrating women's sports at North Carolina, as 15 varsity teams collectively representing 36 team national championships greeted over 1,200 visitors in UNC's Indoor Practice Facility for the school's eighth annualNational Girls and Women in Sports Day.
Each team set up a station with a "mini-clinic" so that the hundreds of early grade-school children, the majority of them young girls, could swarm from one spot to the next, trying out different sports and getting autographs from their favorite UNC athletes, or anyone they happened to spy.
The event gave many of the kids there an opportunity to try out sports they might have never have seen or played before, like lacrosse, fencing and golf.
"We got a lot of young women trying our sports, which is great to get some exposure," senior fencer Justine de Grasse said. "Especially since it's a not very common sport, we like to get a lot of people to try it and fall in love with it."
De Grasse, for her part, fell in love with fencing after watching it in the Olympics when she was seven years old. Her uncle also fenced in college; she tried it out and stuck with it.
"It's really hectic, but it's really amazing to see how much they actually enjoy it," de Grasse said. "Fencing is one of those cool sports you don't think exists, and then all of a sudden, you're in a 'Star Wars' movie or whatever. It's really cute to see the kids try it out, especially when they're really young."
For non-revenue sports that have cultivated a strong local following, the event gave athletes an opportunity to see some familiar faces, and for young girls to meet in person the people who might adorn their posters back home.
"It's funny because you can see the parallels, when you're competing on the field, and you see all the kids in the crowd and then when you're here you see all the kids who are watching you, you can actually interact with them," junior soccer player Lotte Wubben-Moy said. "You can talk to them, show them a bit about you and a bit about your sport.
The kids on Sunday ranged from pre-K to eighth grade, and the event was the largest it had ever been since UNC started hosting it eight years ago. After the mini-clinics were over, the majority of the crowd walked over to Carmichael Arena to watch the North Carolina women's basketball team go the distance before falling to No. 5 Louisville.
