We’re back with a new book AND a new season of Strong Girl Talk! First, our graphic novel, Why Can’t They Play, from the RE.sport team is available now. And because this topic is so important, we wanted to break it down for coaches, parents and athletes with a special podcast series.
Why can’t they play?
It sounds like a simple question.
There are kids who want to play sports. Parents who want to help them play. Teachers and coaches who want to create great experiences for them.
And yet, somewhere along the way, a lot of kids get left out.
Welcome to Why Can’t They Play?, a Strong Girl Talk podcast presented by RE.sport.
For the next couple months, every week we want to ask a pretty big question: What would it take to help more kids play?
This season, every episode will be 15 minutes or less. We’ll take something happening in youth sport—something we’re seeing in the research, hearing about in the media, or experiencing in our schools and communities—and unpack it.
We’ll talk about barriers. But more importantly, we’ll talk about opportunities.
And every episode, we’ll leave you with something practical you can think about or do to help the kids in your life have more opportunities to play.
So why call this podcast Why Can’t They Play?
It started with a graphic novel by the same name.
Why Can’t They Play? uses something familiar to almost anyone who grew up around school sport: the tryout.
A kid wants to play.
They show up.
They try out.
And then someone makes the team—and someone doesn’t.
We tend to accept that as simply how sport works.
But what if we asked a different question - Does it have to work that way?
School sport matters because, for many young people, school may be their first—and sometimes their only—opportunity to experience organized sport.
But having sport at school doesn’t automatically mean every student has an opportunity to play.
We know that girls are more likely to leave sport during adolescence, and many young people face additional barriers connected to things like income, race, disability, body size, geography, transportation, equipment, previous experience, and simply whether the right opportunity exists for them.
And sometimes, the systems we’ve built unintentionally make those barriers even bigger.
Tryouts are just one example.
So this podcast isn’t really about getting rid of competition or pretending every kid wants the same sport experience.
It’s about getting curious.
Why do we do things this way?
Who does this system work really well for?
Who might it be leaving out?
And most importantly: What could we do differently?
Because maybe the question isn’t whether every kid can make the team.
Maybe the bigger question is: How do we make sure every kid has somewhere to play?
That’s what we’re going to explore this season.
Welcome to Why Can’t They Play? Reimaging Tryouts so All Kids Have the Chance to Play.
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Remember you can follow Molly and Sasha on Social Media including:
Molly - @mollyjhurford @stronggirlpublishingSasha - @SGollishRuns @Yellow_Running_ShoesRE.sport - @project_resport
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Why Can’t They Play? A Graphic Novel Reimagining Tryouts So All Kids Have the Chance to Play
We worked with the RE.sport team to create a graphic novel that’s research-based and evidence-informed to help kids understand the barriers that their peers may face in sport. It’s available for preorder now, and bulk options (with PDF lesson plan downloads and a tryout assessment) are available for classes and teams. Check it out here.
You walk past the tryout poster in the hallway.Some kids can’t wait.Some feel nervous.Some don’t even stop to look.
What is stopping some kids from trying out for the team while others don’t think twice? What makes some kids excited, while other kids don’t even consider signing up?
Asking “Why Can’t They Play?” seems like a simple question, but it has an incredibly complex answer. All kids should be able to play, but for some, a tryout poster hanging in the hall is just another reminder of why they can’t play.
In this graphic novel, a team of researchers breaks down some of the main ways that a soccer tryout can exclude many kids—and why that’s wrong, and what kids, coaches and educators can do about it.
When we work together, we can find a way that we can all play.
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