Capital City High School celebrates National Girls & Women in Sports Day
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)
On Monday night, Capital City High School devoted an entire evening to celebrating the achievements of its female athletes, coaches and leaders, ahead of National Girls and Women in Sports Day, on Wednesday.
Cavalier Athletics put together a banquet, which featured prize giveaways, guest speakers, dinner, a photo booth and an overall focus on empowering and elevating women's sports. One of those guest speakers was Mizzou softball coach Larissa Anderson, who said she's never seen an event quite like the one that came together on Monday night.
"This is great. I mean, this is great to see so many female athletes here, you can feel the energy, you can feel the excitement. I'm glad to be here," she said.
Anderson, along with MSHSAA Executive Director Dr. Jennifer Rukstad, addressed a room full of Capital City athletes and coaches. In addition talking about their own journeys in athletics, they each gave valuable advice and perspective.
"Your story matters. Your effort matters. Your voice matters. Don't measure your worth by the scoreboard alone. Measure it by the person you are becoming. Measure it by how you treat other people. by the courage you show up with when things get uncomfortable," Anderson said in her speech.
Capital City Assistant Activities Director Aubrey Allen was responsible for putting the event together. However, this actually wasn't the first time that they had hosted something like this, in fact, a couple of years ago Cavalier Athletics hosted another Girls and Women in Sports Day event, but one that Allen said was on a much smaller scale.
For its big return in 2026, Allen said she wanted not just deliver something special for her student-athletes, but over-deliver.
"We started brainstorming ideas to make this bigger and better and I started thinking about the local businesses that might see relevance in this. That's why you have Supplement Super Store and Fleet Feet and things like that because they're going to be able to connect with 140 athletes, tonight," Allen said. "I hope that they all gain from it."
A former athlete, herself, Allen said that having a night like this means the world.
"I'm so happy to see this come to fruition because they work tirelessly too. You know, they're students first, athletes second, but the grind never stops. They're here at 6 a.m. and some nights they're here until 10 p.m. and to be able to kick back, relax and celebrate them and celebrate all the things that they're doing, both on and off the court, is amazing," she said.
"I feel like really appreciated because not a lot of schools actually do this and celebrate this day. So like, having this for our school is really meaningful to me because not a lot of women get seen for like the sports that they do. I feel like it's really meaningful and it should reach out to other schools," Capital City basketball senior Jamila Lee said.
Coach Anderson has been around to see the growth of women's sports, first-hand. She said the biggest way in which she's seen it develop is in viewership.
"We're getting on TV, everybody watches women's athletics. It continues to grow, including the stadiums that they're building, the investment, the sponsorship. I mean, there's no ceiling, like we're continuing to grow," she said. "It's being able to impact young girls, kids that come our games. Being able to watch [our players] on TV because someday they're going to be in those shoes. If you can't see it, you can't dream it."
