They say, “Girls just wanna have fun”, I’d say we want fun and a whole lot more. On Friday, December 1st, nearly 100 Up2Us Sports friends from all over Miami took over Marlins Park for a kickball tournament. There was fun, food and friendly competition – all in the name of female coaches.

We laughed, we cartwheeled, we selfied, we danced, we kicked, we ran, we high fived, we made new friends, we made memories and most of all we showed our support to help young girls have strong female role models as sports coaches.

The first-ever event of this kind and magnitude was held to promote awareness and raise funds for the She Can Coach campaign. Up2Us Sports launched the campaign earlier this year to focus on the importance of growing opportunities for women to coach and ensuring young girls in vulnerable communities have great female role models in their lives.

The Marlins Foundation and The Take Charge Foundation were presenting sponsors of the event, along with The Miami Foundation, Egon Zehnder, The Children’s Trust, United Way, Florida International University’s Education Effect, Overtown Youth Center and Core Assets fitness instructors. Each sponsor brought a team of 10 players to participate in round robin kickball games, leading up to a championship game. The host Miami Marlins team took home bragging rights this year, but the other teams are already gearing up for next year’s rematch.

Through the generous support of these organizations and individuals, and dedication to ensuring that our next generation of girls have strong female mentors as coaches, Up2Us Sports raised nearly $40,000 to cover the training and coaching stipends for four more female coaches in Miami.

There is still so much work left to do, but this year’s event has lit the fire in Miami and is paving the way for even more female coaches to come.