United Women’s Ball Hockey Foundation and Temple team up to offer free clinic

Before Saturday, the last time Alessandra Glista saw Laura Ramos was 15 years ago, when they were playing ball hockey together.

Ramos decided to take her daughter to Gustine Recreation Center in East Falls on Saturday for a clinic held by the United Women’s Ball Hockey Foundation — of which Glista is a co-founder.

“We’ve seen [our daughter] play before, just picking up a random stick and playing by herself, so we wanted her to get involved in a team,” Ramos said. “This was a way for her to try it out and see if she likes it with people who really know what they’re doing. And hopefully show her that this is something that she can do.”

The UWBHF clinic, run with the help of Temple’s School of Sport, Tourism and Hospitality Management as part of their collaboration, Strong Women Strong Sport, welcomed dozens of kids ages 7-14. The event was part of a weekend of activities celebrating National Girls and Women in Sports Day.

The event began Friday with a think tank that featured discussions on emerging sports and grassroots development, leveraging partnerships for women’s sports, and marketing and representation, plus a keynote session on women’s leadership led by Temple women’s basketball coach Diane Richardson.

“We had our ball hockey people there,” Glista said, “we had U.S. Tennis there, we had Philly flag football, all different leaders from different sports to talk about issues in women’s sports and help it emerge and come together as one group because we’re all facing the same challenges in all the different sports.”

Saturday featured a full day of free clinics for sports like ball hockey, flag football, and flag rugby.

The ball hockey clinic on Saturday was led by members of the U.S. women’s national ball hockey team, which won a gold medal at last summer’s world championships in Visp, Switzerland.

Participants in the clinic took home a free stick and ball, donated by Knapper, a ball hockey equipment company. The Flyers also donated pinnies bearing their logo for attendees to wear and take home.

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“Everyone who comes today is getting trained by the U.S. national team,” Glista said. “And it’s awesome that we’re able to provide them with a stick and a ball to take home so they can leave here and continue to play.”

The weekend events concluded Saturday night with the first-ever women’s ball hockey Hall of Fame ceremony. Along with inductees being named, the events honored community achievement award winners, a celebration of gold medal triumphs, and a 20-year reunion for the 2005 Women’s World Cup teams, Glista said. Among the community award winners are Natalie and Olivia Van Druff and Lilly Walter. Natalie and Lilly helped save their local dek hockey rink in Gilbertsville, Montgomery County.

“We are naming two inductees, and we’re super pumped. It’s turned into a much bigger event,” Glista said. “We just want to get as many people exposed to the sport as possible and events like today are a great and inexpensive way to play.”

Temple first got involved two years ago, when it put together a global summit with UWBHF. The partnership has remained strong since then, and Glista has been brainstorming what the two can do as a follow-up.

For Debra Blair, a professor in Temple’s STHM program, it was important for the university to get involved because of the connection it fosters with the Philadelphia community.

“We have been working with the [UWBHF] for a couple of years because there has to be this good synergy between academics and industry,” Blair said. ‘We’re preparing the next leaders, supervisors, and innovators for these kinds of events, and it really is a big part of our mission to make this connection.”

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Blair also highlighted the challenges that young girls in sports face as a reason to get involved. When they have confidence in themselves on the playing field, they can do whatever they set out to, she said.

“We had such a great conversation with [Richardson],” Blair said. “One of her pillars is this idea of confidence — women need confidence. There are a lot of challenges, a lot of gaps, in terms of opportunities and access, so to be able to do sports and build the confidence, the strength, the idea of teamwork, all of those things transition from the field to the classroom and then to the workplace as you become an adult.”