WHITEHALL — For the second straight year, Whitehall assistant basketball coach Emily MacArthur put together a National Girls and Women in Sports Day celebration around the district Wednesday morning - but this year, the event got beefed up even more.
Just as in 2025, the day began with the female athletes at Whitehall, along with several girls coaches, marching through Shoreline and Ealy elementary schools and Whitehall Middle School. The group high-fived students and celebrated school spirit. (The middle school pep band even performed as the Viking girls proceeded through that building.) However, this time, 2025 guest speaker Courtney Kust, the Hope College women's basketball associate head coach, was joined by three other prominent Michigan-based women who work in sports: former Fruitport volleyball coach Nicole Bayle, Hope College mental health performance consultant KK Roman and Beacon Health Services athletic training manager Kara Werner-Sanders.
The added time meant the girls' athletes missed school lunch, but instead they received the treat of having Papa's Pizza, which donated a meal to the event.
"I was definitely honored," Bayle said of being asked to be part of the day. "I've known Coach MacArthur from working together in an elementary school in Fruitport, and when she reached out, I was excited. I think it's an awesome thing that Whitehall is doing for their high school athletes and definitely a cool opportunity to have a voice and talk about the amazing things that I think West Michigan is doing for their female student-athletes."
Each speaker shared thoughts about growth and development of female athletes, but none of them emphasized what's done between the lines, noting the more important things sports do for female athletes happen far from game time.
Kust encouraged athletes to write down an "anchor statement," challenging the Vikings to consider what they bring to their team regardless of their playing time or results. She also implored them to move past a fear of failure, using the example of former Florida basketball star Patric Young, who had a successful pro career overseas but became a paraplegic in a 2022 car accident. She cited news stories in which Young has since turned the thought, "What if I never walk again?" to the more empowering "Even if I never walk again..." and said athletes should apply that same mindset to being a good leader and teammate.
Bayle too embraced the idea of not fearing failure. A high school and college volleyball star before her coaching days, Bayle shared anecdotes of shanking a pass to lose the state semifinal match for her team as a senior and of incorrectly writing out the lineup prior to the finals match in her first season as a varsity coach. She did so to remind players that failure is inevitable, but it's also healthy.
"That first piece of failure is really humbling," Bayle said. "It can really make an athlete or a kid crumble in their self-confidence, but knowing that in the past, people who you look up to, athletes, professionals, all those people, failure is what leads them to their path to being able to succeed, is a big part of it. It's not a fun part, for sure, but it is a huge part of being able to learn how to be a successful athlete, person and leader."
Roman discussed mental health challenges, citing a personal example of having five varsity girls basketball coaches in her four years at Traverse City West, one of whom passed away - a challenge she felt she'd have benefited from help overcoming. She cited star female athletes like Simone Biles and Coco Gauff, who have been public about mental health, as role models and had the Vikings stand up and verbally say positive affirmations about themselves.
Werner-Sanders, though a physical trainer, also focused on mental health in her remarks, urging athletes to embrace a growth mindset rather than a fixed one and to lean into the challenges they face, both as athletes and as women. Werner-Sanders said after an injury-plagued high school career (part of what led her to her training career), she walked onto the softball team at Carroll University in Wisconsin as an undergrad, playing in memory of a friend who had passed away, and became an all-conference player.
"What can I get better at?" Werner-Sanders told the girls to ask, adding that athletes should "lower our defenses" and accept help when needed.
They were all messages that resonated for the Viking athletes, including senior Kate Beda and junior Clare Westerlund. The march through the schools also spoke volumes to them about how they are viewed.
"You walk through, and you see little kids (say), 'Oh my gosh, I know her. She reffed me,'" Westerlund said. "They say little things, and you realize that people are watching you. I don't even recognize some of the kids that are saying, 'Oh my gosh, I know her,' and it's like they're watching you. It's just super cool to see how cool you look (to the younger kids)."
Beda, who is graduating in May and plans to play soccer at Lawrence Tech University next year, is excited to take lessons learned from her years in sports, and events like Wednesday's, and put them into practice.
"Sports are just the time of the day where I can forget about school. I can forget about grades," Beda said. "I can forget about everything that goes on at home, all those kinds of things. And you can just come (be) with your friends. It's a sense of community. It's a place where you can work hard and get better every day. I love that feeling. There's nothing that replaces that feeling."
