Girls and Sports.

Last week, Sam Sommers, a professor at Tufts University, commented on the importance of encouraging young girls to appreciate sports. He urged others to use the U.S. Women's Soccer team as a shining example of why women's sports matter:

"Because this is a great team with entertaining personalities, worthy of our attention in the same way as other classic American teams from international competitions. Because this team has already taught my kids an important lesson about perseverance. While my girls hung their heads and whined about the lousy officiating (the hallmarks of any true sports fan) in the quarterfinal against Brazil, the players didn't succumb, gifting us instead one of the gutsiest last-minute comebacks of all time. And, yes, also because they're women. While this squad isn't trailblazing in the way the 1999 Cup winners were -- the first women to really break through to national consciousness in a team sport -- it's important for kids to see that iconic teams come in all shapes, sizes, colors, and hair lengths."

I couldn't agree more. Read more of Sommer's article here.