play sports together, boys often have an advantage because they are not only more familiar with sports participation but they are usually bigger and stronger than girls. In addition, girls are often met with a lack of support from boys when they participate in sports, but on all-girl sports teams there is a spirit of encouragement and cheering lacking in co-ed sports involvement. Therefore, young girls who participate in sports are more likely to develop higher levels of confidence and self-esteem, traits which are readily transferable to their academic endeavors. One study by the National Science Foundation contends that the lessons learned from sports participation by girls are ones that also help them do well in academics, especially fields like science where they traditionally do not perform as well as boys, “The ability to compete, independence, self-esteem—the tremendous benefits reaped from sports participation—are the same traits women need to succeed in science. Boys do not do better in math and science than their male classmates who don’t compete in sports. However, the girls who had exposure to sport and participated in sport were more likely to think math and science were something they could do well in, and they were more likely to take those courses and do well in them” (Billups 1).
Sports participation has also proven to be beneficial for helping at-risk children develop healthy and positive skills that increase their chances of having a productive and healthy life. Because of the increasing rates of teen pregnancy, violence and drug use, many communities have taken matters into their own hands in an effort to help young children develop positive life skills. In Brooklyn there is a program that is called Horizons that is funded completely through volunteers and local businesses and agencies. The program sponsors basketball games for 200 adolescent boys and girls who are at-risk for developing proble...