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Commentary
There are 1,000 Caitlin Clarks out there, if you're paying attention
I’ve spent the last year as a sports journalist covering women’s sports leagues in Boston. I took on the role to address an enduring frustration of mine — most of Boston’s major media outlets (present company included) devote a fraction of their overall coverage to women’s teams. I wanted to turn my anger into something productive, by creating the world I want to see: a world where athletes in women’s sports leagues receive excellent, equitable and antiracist coverage. But in my new part-time career as a sports reporter, I experienced the heartbreak familiar to so many fans before me: my favorite player got traded.
Her name is Sophie Jacques. And I suspect you don’t know who that is. She’s a young, Black Canadian hockey superstar who was drafted by PWHL Boston, our local professional women’s hockey team. Jacques was recognized as the top player in Division I NCAA hockey, has a degree in civil engineering (with a focus on transportation) and devotes her spare time to the Black Girls Hockey Club. She was this sports-reporter’s dream feature story: Not only could Jaques help Boston win in the PWHL’s inaugural year, maybe she could even help us fix the MBTA!
And then, before I got the chance to write about her, she was traded — poof. I’m disappointed I missed my chance with Jacques, but there’s an important lesson for all of us in her story: There are profoundly interesting and talented athletes in every women’s league, if only we were looking for them.
Women’s college basketball is in the middle of an extraordinary moment right now, one that is long overdue. Caitlin Clark is getting buckets full of press coverage in this epic run during her final year at Iowa, smashing record upon record along the way. Fans of every gender know the names JuJu Watkins, Angel Reese, and Paige Bueckers — much more so than their male counterparts. An average of 12.3 million people tuned into watched LSU vs. Iowa in an Elite 8 game on Monday night, making it the most watched college basketball game ever broadcast on ESPN.
But the reality is that women’s sports only comprises 15% of all sports media coverage. There are 1,000 Caitlin Clarks out there, if you cover women’s sports. There are 1,000 stories of skilled, devoted, endlessly fascinating women athletes who are absolutely balling out. What they miss is the spotlight, the attention, the investment.
When I first started covering local women’s professional sport leagues, I applied for a press pass to cover the Boston Pride, the name of our pro-women’s hockey team at the time. (I was angry that there were Olympians playing in Brighton, but I could find no mention of their games in local Boston media.) How was it possible that a professional team, that had won a national championship, never got a Duck Boat parade? Imagine the outcry if the Bruins won the Stanley Cup and no one threw them a party. But for the Boston Pride and the four-time national champions Boston Renegades (that’s our pro women’s football team), this is standard operating sexism of New England sports.
Joshua Brister, owner of the semi-pro women’s basketball team, the Lewiston Maples said, “Our problem isn’t attendance or quality of play. It’s visibility and media coverage. These women ball. Maine will have a player in the first round of the WNBA draft this year (Makenzie Holmes of University of Indiana), and two more making WNBA rosters.”
Invariably, some dude (it’s usually a dude) will argue with me and say women’s leagues don’t deserve as much airtime as men’s leagues because they don’t have as many fans. But people can’t love what they cannot see, and right now, fans cannot see enough of the women’s leagues.
For example, ESPN has held the rights to NCAA Women’s Tournament for years, but is only now is marketing it. The phrase “March Madness” was only allowed to be used for the women’s tournament since 2022. Women’s games are not easily accessible on ESPN, apps, or on the website of NESN locally.
Let's enjoy this moment not only because it’s well-deserved and overdue, but because it’s damn fun.
I know from our own storytelling at Boston Women’s Sports that there is real hunger for more stories about athletes in women’s leagues. During the World Cup last summer, our most liked and shared post was about Cheyenne Matthews, originally from Lynn, who played on the Jamaican National Team. We spent all of February amplifying and sometimes excavating stories of Black women athletes from Massachusetts. There are so many glorious and underreported stories to tell from the past — like runner “the Malden Meteors” Louise May Stokes Fraser — and present, including professional cyclist and Berklee alum Ayesha McGowan.
I am a preacher by training, and I know that the best way to land a sermon is to share a good story. Show, don’t tell. The solution here is quite simple, really: There are more stories to share, so let's show more of them.
So, let’s enjoy this moment not only because it’s well-deserved and overdue, but because it’s damn fun. And let’s celebrate, not just for this generation, but for all the generations of players who didn’t get the spotlight, all the generations who never got 12.3 million viewers but still hooped with the best — the Cheryl Millers, Sheryl Swoops(es) and Chamique Holdsclaws. Enjoy watching Caitlin make threes from the logo. Enjoy North Carolina State's unlikely run, trying to take down the unbeaten University of South Carolina.
On Friday night, I’m getting together with my college girlfriends — who all happen to be Division I athletes — and yes, their children, too. We’re throwing a party to watch history: Iowa and UConn, NC State and South Carolina. I ordered a cake that says “Everyone watches women’s sports.”
Throw your own watch party. Go to Drawdown Brewing, Boston’s newest bar that focuses on women’s sports. Just don’t miss the party.
