Motherhood.

I have played basketball for what feels like forever now and with every passing year it becomes that much more difficult to build a women's team. Girls play the same amount (or nearly as many) sports in school as boys do but we get out of school and start down different paths. One such path is motherhood. I believe this is one of the main reasons that I can't build a complete basketball team now that I am 32. Somewhere between trying to change diapers and create healthy meals we lose what we once were. Most aren't bitter by that fact, it is more of just a life change...something that some of us welcome. But it holds true that when little girls dream of big sports they rarely have women athletes past a certain to look up to. Teens and early twenties are easier to find though even they drop off the more dangerous sports early on. Freestyle skiing lost a legend a week ago, Sarah Burke died while training for the X-Games. She was nearly my age and was one of the ones that kept pushing on...I can only imagine how hard it was every year to continue to strap on those skis and compete against young girls that don't wear wedding bands and aren't trying to start a family. The price of failure only multiplies with each thing you gain. I know every weekend as we head up to the mountain I feel sick to my stomach, what if this weekend will be the one where I wreck and can't get up. That's what we are all thinking, all us moms. We strap on our helmets and boards because it is more important to be the role models that my daughters will need to see that life is scary and hard but sometimes if you try really hard you can keep up with the boys.