REGINA — The girls are on their way to the gridiron and they’ve got a lot to offer.
As newly-reacquired Saskatchewan Roughriders kicker Brett Lauther sees it, one day soon the girls might even be coming for on-field jobs.
“Most of the schools I go to or any of the flag football the girls are usually better than the boys,” Lauther said as he observed proceedings Friday at the Saskatchewan Roughrider Foundation’s second annual girls’ summit at AffinityPlex.
Lauther, father to a one-year-old girl, talked to SaskToday as teammate Sam Emilus was preparing to deliver a mental health presentation to a group of Grade 7 and 8 students.
“The girl power is the real thing,” said Lauther, who rejoined the Riders this week after a trade with the Ottawa Redblacks.
This year’s summit saw over 150 girls attend a pair of events, the other taking place Thursday in Saskatoon.
At each stop, students participated in strength training, yoga, mindfulness practice, mental health presentations and a Football 101 introduction.
“We hope they feel more confident about themselves and we're pushing them a little bit out of their comfort zone because … many of them probably haven't even touched a football,” the foundation’s executive director Cindy Fuchs told SaskToday on Friday.
“We're hoping, besides doing something new, that they also maybe feel like they might want to play flag football or girls' tackle football. There's lots of girls’ opportunities for football or, if they don't want to play there's other opportunities that they can think about. ‘Oh I really like that game but I don't want to be a player.’ We hope it just tweaks their interest to say, 'Hey, I'm going to watch that football sport and see what happens there.'”
Some of those opportunities were shared via presentations from Roughriders communications director Arielle Zerr and Georgette Reed, daughter of legendary former Riders running back George Reed, who represented Canada in shot put at the 1992 Summer Olympics.
“Girls should have every opportunity they want,” said Fuchs. “If they choose to play or work in football, I would hope that there's a chance for them to be able to do that and no barriers are there to stop them from doing that.
“I loved watching it in hockey and now I want to see it happen in other sports, including football.”
