the first day of my last Skillz Street

It's taken 268 days to get to this moment. It's taken 51 practices to get to this moment. It's taken 14 self-designed and self-implemented training sessions to get to this moment. It's taken 678 pictures and 5 videos to get to this moment. It's taken 16 coaches to get to this moment. It's taken 1 determined intern to get to this moment. And this moment is (drumroll please), the first practice of the last Skillz Street that I will run in Kimberley, South Africa. 

Heading to Skillz Street today, I wasn't sure how I felt about it being "the first day of my last Skillz Street," but as I watched ten Kimberley coaches lead 108 girls through 'Practice 1: Join the Skillz Street Team!' I felt nothing but pride. Why's that? Because the coaches rocked it!

Practice 1 is a fun practice. It's purpose is simple; explain what Skillz Street is to the girls and get them pumped to be a part of Grassroot Soccer's girls-only program that lets them join a team, play soccer, talk about girl stuff, and have fun. Girls get to make their own team contract where they pick what rules they want to follow. Girls get to come up with a powerful team name that represents who they are and all of their positive qualities. And girls get to invent their own Team Kilo and Team Anthem to show off their awesomeness.

I'll be honest, back in September (when I first got here) I saw some awful first practices. I've seen first practices where girls do nothing but sit quietly in their classroom as coaches talk about... who knows what with them. I've seen first practices where girls don't get a chance to make their own team name. And I've seen practices where girls weren't allowed to make a Team Anthem because they "were being too naughty." But today there was none of that.

And at the end of the day when each team got the chance to perform their Team Kilo and Team Anthem on the Skillz Stage I was blown away by the effort, creativity, and sassiness of the teams.

It certainly wan't easy getting to this point because it took more than just careful planning, organization and the ability to smile and wave when someone spoke to me in a foreign language. In Kimberley, I had to go a step further and convince our female coaches that soccer was indeed a girl's game.

The fact that soccer is the world's most popular sport is everywhere - in newspapers and magazines, on blogs and websites, and evident in many non-profit groups' missions. And due to its popularity it is now widely acknowledged that soccer is a universal language that reaches everyone. And this is true. For guys. For girls, it's a whole different ball game.

It's not that girls don't play soccer and it's not that girls don't like soccer, but just as gender norms and the development of sports have resulted in male-dominated sports in other countries (i.e. American football, cricket, rugby), in South Africa, soccer is a sport played mostly by guys. And the current culture in South Africa reinforces this idea. Soccer leagues for men are well-organized, encourage the development of players (in fact the youth leagues look very similar to those found in the U.S.) and are even sponsored. In contrast the girls "leagues" are loosely organized, require a lot of extra work (and money) on the part of the players and provide limited opportunities for girls interested in soccer.

Some South Africans still insist that girls can't play soccer. I've had several conversations with guys in the townships that always end in them calling me a liar and swearing that there is no way I actually can play soccer. Other guys that have seen me play soccer order me to stop because if I don't, "it will make [my] legs look too much like a guys'." And worst of all, in some parts of the country it is believed that women that play soccer will be turned into lesbians.

In this context, most girls choose not to play soccer, opting instead to play netball (a sport that combines team handball with basketball). And most of GRS Kimberley's female coaches didn't think it was wise to actually play soccer in Skillz Street.

I was flabbergasted! These female coaches were part of an organization that uses soccer to affect behavioral change and yet, they didn't want to use soccer! Instead of playing soccer with the Skillz Street participants they wanted to let them go home early or play other games with them. Well as you can imagine, I would have none of that.

It wasn't easy to convince 16 adults, many of whom had never played soccer, that the soccer part of Skillz Street was good. It wasn't easy to show them that soccer was indeed a powerful tool for young girls (just letting them play soccer shows them it's not only a sport for guys). But with the help of the participants (I shamelessly started asking a lot of them - in front of the coaches - what their favorite part of Skillz Street was, to which they all answered "the soccer!") I finally convinced the coaches that every part of Skillz Street, from the soccer to the team building, was awesome and had tremendous power.

And today during Practice 1, I saw every single coach fully engaged and invested in Skillz Street. It was an incredible sight. And it left me feeling confident that not only will this be the best Skillz Sreet league yet, but also that Skillz Street will continue to empower young girls in Kimberley long after I am gone.