I gave up going to Jazz games years ago, though I continue to have season tickets in my name. They're too expensive and they're just not that much fun anymore. The crowd has become a pretty elite group, all dressed up and sporting snooty attitudes.
I enjoyed it more back in the Salt Palace when there was a Jazz band hooting and hollering, the noisy fans were more in my income bracket and the players seemed to be thinking more about playing the game than about how they could make even more obscene amounts of money.But a Starzz game is a totally different matter. Now this is fun.
Behind my daughter and me Tuesday night there was a self-appointed cheering section of college-age kids yelling and stomping, there were rows of elementary school-age kids waving signs and calling the players by name. It was a game with serious implications, and the Starzz played two overtime periods before finally losing by only two points.
The fans seemed to have a close personal relationship with the players. They didn't need to check the program; everybody was on a first-name basis - even with the opposing team. And everybody had a great time. Well, I'm not so sure about Chantel Tremetiere, who had been smacked, clawed and bruised all night with nary a whistle blown. But the fans danced, whooped, booed and stomped in a way the more sedate Jazz fans of recent years just don't.
But it was more than the excitement that made my evening. It was getting a chance to watch talented female athletes play sports in a professional arena. It was seeing a female coach, trainer and referee getting paid to do something they love.
This is still an exhilarating experience for a woman who grew up during a time when high school girls who were interested in sports were considered abnormal and probably not very bright and certainly not apt to ever snag a suitable husband (a goal that was considered vital for all girls, and the earlier the better).
Maybe I'm becoming an anachronism, and I hope so, but it doesn't seem that long ago that insurmountable barriers kept girls and women from realizing their dreams.
Playing sports provides the same benefits to females as it does to males: They learn to compete, to work together with others as a team, to develop physical and mental discipline. For girls, sports does even more; athletic competition teaches them to appreciate their bodies' value for something other than sex, marriage and motherhood.
There's nothing like physical accomplishments to build self-esteem. A recent report from the Women's Sports Foundation shows that girls who play high school sports delay becoming sexually active and are less likely to get pregnant than those who don't.
The foundation's study indicates girls who played sports are less than half as likely to get pregnant as girls who didn't, more likely to begin sex later in adolescence, more likely to have fewer partners and more likely to use contraceptives.
Give a girl the personal satisfaction that's a result of putting a ball through a hoop, kicking one into a goal or slamming one into left field and you've shown her she doesn't need the approval of a boyfriend as much as she might have believed. Sports teaches girls to respect their bodies and their own ability to make choices.
I once coached a girls church basketball team. This was a team that considered a game a success if they made one basket; winning a game wasn't even considered a possibility.
Some changes were in order. First I demanded team shirts for the girls. Despite the fact the boys team associated with the same church group had full uniforms, the girls had to wear "pinnies" over their street clothes to show which team was which.
Outfitted in team shirts complete with numbers, the girls' confidence improved immediately. Along with teaching the basic skills and rules, I had to encourage a little aggressiveness. I offered my center a candy bar every time she was called for a foul and didn't spend the next five minutes apologizing.
By the end of the season, the girls were winning games and feeling good about knowing how to play and feeling fit enough to run up and down the court for an hour. It probably wasn't a life-altering experience, but I think it gave them a new perspective on their own abilities.
There are still some things that need work. My team had to deal with scorekeepers and timekeepers who didn't pay attention; the clock stopped working during the Starzz game Tuesday. Our referees lacked training; the Starzz referee let Houston's team have a little shoot-around during a timeout.
But judging from the lively support at the Delta Center Tuesday, women's sports and the athletes who play them are doing just fine, thank you. And it's about time.