USC women’s basketball team inspires young girls to play

Sporty boys have more than a few faces to look up to, with countless male athletes giving them role models to emulate, get them excited about playing sports or give them hopes of becoming the next big star.

But who do the girls have?

Other than perhaps a surge in support for the U.S. women’s soccer team or a handful of Olympians every few years, female sports fans are much less likely to see someone like themselves as regularly making the SportsCenter highlight reels, being hounded for autographs or praised for leaving marks on sports history.

“It’s all about the guys,” said Marissa Dasta, a 13-year-old basketball player from Irmo.

The USC women’s basketball team, though, is giving local girls like Dasta a reason to cheer and a reason to play.

The success of coach Dawn Staley’s team, which plays in the NCAA Final Four this weekend in Tampa, appears to be having a trickle-down effect on young female athletes in the Columbia area, inspiring some girls to latch onto sports, either for the first time or building on their existing enthusiasm and their hopes of becoming the next A’ja Wilson or Tiffany Mitchell.

Dasta will be in Tampa watching her favorite team play on Sunday – and she hopes in Tuesday’s championship game, too.

The 13-year-old wears Under Armour shoes inspired by the Gamecocks and aspires to imitate Mitchell’s mid-range jumper, she says. Dutch Fork alumna Alaina Coates is Dasta’s favorite player and role model.

She’s been playing basketball since she was about 5 years old and this week spent hours shooting around on the court with her brother, 11-year-old Blake, and two other boys about her age at the Irmo-area YMCA’s day camp during their spring break.

Dasta said she prefers playing with boys because they give her more of a challenge. But she wishes there were more female athletes for her to look up to – even her favorite video games ignore them, she lamented. That’s one reason why she’s latched onto the USC women’s team.

“I just want to be in their group. They’re so cool and I feel like it’s a family,” she said. “I’m all about that, and I just hope one day that I could be a part of that.”

Dasta is among a growing minority of girls playing recreational basketball at the YMCA, according to Jen Sedio, the health enhancement and sports director for the downtown YMCA.

The ratio of girls to boys on the YMCA’s co-ed basketball teams is still only about one girl for every 10 boys, Sedio estimated. But this past season, she saw a slight uptick in the number of older girls playing on teams, which she thinks has been partially influenced by the USC women.

“With the major leagues being football and baseball, we see the guys (in the spotlight). So it definitely is at the college level that we see that women can be just as good and that they have an equal opportunity to play,” Sedio said.

Ten-year-old Emily Bowman, who’s tall for her age and plays point guard in church league basketball, has been following the success of the USC women’s team with her family, going to games regularly at Colonial Life Arena and traveling to Greensboro last weekend to watch the team play in the NCAA tournament.

“I like supporting and cheering them on,” she said. “It’s kind of like seeing someone else doing the same thing (you’re doing) but you’re just learning more about something you do.”

She’s played basketball for two years and has seen more of her friends join the sport recently, both because friends are inviting other friends to play and because the girls have been inspired by the Gamecocks, she believes.

“They look up to them as role models and leaders,” said Emily’s mother, Pam Bowman. “Women have to support each other, I think, more than men do to help build each other up.”

The USC women are teaching her daughter a lot about hard work, commitment and setting goals, Pam Bowman said.

This story was originally published April 3, 2015 at 9:37 PM with the headline "USC women’s basketball team inspires young girls to play."