Tomorrow (Saturday, 11/28) is a pretty momentous day in sports. Sarah Fuller, a Goalkeeper for the Vanderbilt women’s soccer team, is set to become the first Female to compete in Power 5 football as a PK for Vandy Football.
Here are some stats for you: there are only 1,220 football players amongst the Power 5 schools (62.7% of the total population of D1 Football). (Source) There are over 1 million athletes competing in Football at the high school level, with 7.3% making it to the collegiate level and only 2.9% making it to the Division I level. (Source) That means that Sarah has broken a major barrier, becoming part of the <2% of all Division I Football players that has the chance to play at the highest level of Amateur football.
To some people, this may not seem to be that big of a deal. Female athletes have played college football before; There has also been talk of women in the NFL with Carli Lloyd being a popular name a few months back. But none of that compares to what Sarah is about to do. There are so many female athletes out there that have always dreamt of something like this: Getting the opportunity to play at the highest level, something that because of gender they had not been given the opportunity to do before.
So when you are watching Sarah nail 45-yarders for Vandy, just think about your daughters, nieces, and any other little girl out there that is about to be inspired by what is about to transpire tomorrow.
Women’s sports deserve more love. That is a FACT. And unfortunately, major publications just do not do enough to cover the accomplishments of all those competing in the WNBA, NWHL, NWSL, and countless other leagues I am ignorantly forgetting to mention.
I have been lucky enough to work with the girls from TheGIST over the past year, and man are they killing it. Not only do they do a good job of portraying sports for ANYONE, they do an amazing job of highlighting these types of monumental moments with voices that spread further than mine ever could. So go to TheGistSports.com, sign up for their newsletter, follow them on social, and get educated on the exciting world of sports from a different perspective.
Good luck tomorrow Sarah, #AnchorDown.