Discussing Girls & Women In Sports Day With Heather Brink

Wednesday marks the 34th annual National Girls & Women In Sports Day, a celebration that inspires girls and women to play and be active, to realize their full power, according to the Women's Sports Foundation. The confidence, strength and character gained through sports participation are the very tools girls and women need to become strong leaders in sports and life. To recognize this annual day, Brian Rosenthal of Huskers.com visited with Nebraska' women's gymnastics coach Heather Brink, a Lincoln native and former Nebraska student athlete, about the importance of girls and women in sports, and how their participation and leaderships has evolved over the years, and continues to progress.
 
BR: How have you seen girls and women's participation in sports change from the time you were an adolescent until now?
 
Coach Brink: "Everything continues to evolve and grow. I think collegiately, the popularity of women's sports is getting more and more attention. I think Title IX, as far as equivalencies, is a little more mandated, so you're seeing more and more opportunities for young women to kind of be able to grow within their sport, continue on beyond high school or club level, which is really cool. For me, I think the biggest difference, at least in my sport, women's gymnastics, is just the publicity and the coverage, collegiately, we've received from that time. I think that's increased a lot of young high school and junior high school-aged kids to have something to work toward to attain other than just the Olympics. … Realistically, it's giving these young kids something to work for to continue to participate and enjoy their sport. It's increasing the number of kids participating in our sport, because there is something in there for them like that. That's been pretty cool to see. You're starting to see a lot of women who take pride, when they graduate, all the life lessons and the tools they take with them from participating in a sport and being able to get an education and be able to apply those to the work force. A lot of employers value those traits in people, especially women and they're ability to handle so many things at one time."
 
BR: When you were a girl in gymnastics, what women's athletes did you look up to?
 
Coach Brink: "We had a girl at NSG, she competed here at Nebraska, her name was Robin Richter. At the time she was at NSG, but she was doing what we would call elite gymnastics and trying for the national team. She was a big one for me, at least that kind of drove me to see the elite side of things. Collegiately, I had all these big sisters. I'm still in contact with a lot of these people, from Lisa (McCrady) Epperson to Crystal Savage – I'll probably forget somebody – all these people, grew up watching them, spent time with them outside of the gym. It wasn't, to me, just about gymnastics. It was about a role model of a person who loved the sport but also had bigger and better goals. I loved watching them do gymnastics, but they were more than that to me."
 
BR: Do your gymnasts understand and embrace that role knowing they're like role models for girls and young women athletes?
 
Coach Brink: "I think they do a little bit. I mean, it depends. In the heat of the moment, maybe not as much. But I think when they're out there signing autographs and the little kids have posters with their names on it, I think they start to realize the impact they have and the things they do really make a difference to not just those people that know who they are but also people who don't really know who they are. Their actions, their behaviors, their pride for the program that they're part of help inspire these young kids to be bigger, better and powerful women. I talk about it all the time. Whether you believe it or not, you represent something way bigger than yourself. People, when you go out on the street, know who you are. I'll be at boot camp at 5 a.m. and people will come up to me and be like, 'Your girls were at our assisted living center just painting the fingernails of women that we're there.' It just meant the world to them. When they hear those types of comments they start to realize, 'Wow, that was such a small thing for me, but it made such a huge impact for somebody else.' I think they do know in those moments, but when they're in competition I don't know if that's really sunk in at that moment."
 
BR: How has fan interest and popularity of women's gymnastics at Nebraska changed since you were a student athlete?
 
Coach Brink: "This year was the first time we've been televised on ESPN2 in multiple meets at home. I think that's obviously great coverage. Here at Nebraska, now we have a digital department who is putting things together, clips and us working with HuskerVision. Back when I was an athlete, HuskerVision would come to meets but I don't recall us having psych-up videos. Now they're able to put these videos together at the end of meets and clips to put out on social media. Things are going viral. I think that's just kind of gaining momentum for our sport. Television for women's gymnastics in general, our viewership increased significantly over the past year. It's just continued to evolve. I think you're starting to find a lot of people are interested in our sport. Nebraska people root for Nebraska teams. That's gaining popularity. I'd love to see that transition more into attendance, but at least we're getting out there, getting coverage, able to see it. The amount of text messages I get or emails I get … 'I saw you on TV, your team looked great, great job!' Multiple, multiple texts and emails every week after we've been on television. It just continues to help build a platform not just for our program but also our women student-athletes."
 
BR: From a coaching standpoint, how much more involved are women in sports today, and does there need to be more involvement?
 
Coach Brink: "I think you're seeing a lot of young women who are leading, at least gymnastics, that are entering the coaching world. Look, we just had the first female coach as part of the Super Bowl. I think there are so many young women out there that I think in the past maybe didn't think they could do it or didn't even take the time to apply for positions who are now really understanding not just women's sports, but sports in general, and getting more and more involved. I think people are starting to understand there's an important piece of both male and female roles in coaching. I've had several athletes who've left and then say they want to coach. Like Catelyn Orel, she graduated last year and is now coaching at the University of Arkansas (as a volunteer assistant). I think you're starting to see more women who are starting to see that, who think they can make an impact on these young kids' lives and really be able to enjoy the sport they fell in love with also enjoy being able to give back to it. That's been pretty powerful. Nobody knows you can actually do it until you do it."
 
BR: Personally, what have you learned about being a head coach in your short time in the position? Has it been what you expected?
 
Coach Brink: "There have been pieces of it that have been. Then there have been pieces I don't know if you can fully be prepared for until you're actually in the position. I've learned how important the relationship is between you and your athletes. I've learned that takes a lot of effort as a head coach to do that. After this last year, moving into this year it became more about figuring out how I wanted the program to continue to move forward. Obviously being an alum and a Nebraska native it was important to me that I embrace our traditions and the equity of our alumni and everything they've been able to attain. But I want to put my stamp on it in my own kind of way. I think it's also important as a head coach, and I've learned this one, too, is to have people that surround you and are there to help you. To go to them and be able to ask, 'Hey this is what I'm thinking.' The head coach, everybody says it's lonely at the top, right? You've got to have that inner circle that you can kind of go to. I have a few mentors inside and outside the university I go to and regularly ask questions and get feedback on myself. I'm still growing in this position. I hope I'm always growing. That's an important piece of that. I'm also an athlete. I like to know what I can do next time or do better fixing."
 
Reach Brian at brosenthal@huskers.com or follow him on Twitter @GBRosenthal.