BROOKINGS – Myah Selland and Tori Nelson note that they played a “ton of sports” growing up. Along the way to where they are now on the South Dakota State University women’s basketball team, they also attended sports camps.

Now the duo is raising funds to help other girls attend camps. The name of their endeavor is “Her Turn.”

Their website describes it “as a scholarship program affiliated with the Brookings Foundation (and) designed to create athletic opportunities for young girls in the community.” The duo noted that their efforts are “under the umbrella of the Brookings Foundation, and (director) Kurt Osborne has been really great to work with.”

“Growing up, I did a ton of sports,” Selland, from Letcher, said. “In high school, I played volleyball, basketball and ran track and field.” 

In her fifth year at SDSU, she’s majoring in exercise science and community and public health. Having been red-shirted, she has one year of eligibility left.

“Next year will be my sixth year, so I’ll be a super, super senior,” Selland said, smiling. “I graduated from my first degree, exercise science; now I’m working on community and public health.”

Nelson is a sophomore from Mendota Heights, Minnesota. Like Selland, she’s also majoring in exercise science and community and public health and played a lot of sports growing up. In high school, she played basketball and softball. She’s in her third year at SDSU; however, having been red-shirted, she has two years of eligibility remaining.

The duo see Her Turn’s mission as “wanting to inspire and enable girls to reach their full potential in life and in sports through expanded opportunities.” 

They’re focusing on middle school girls who would benefit the most from the opportunity, mostly low-income families. The Brookings Backpack Project and the Boys & Girls Club of Brookings have been helping recruit some of the girls.

The camps will take place in June and July and each women’s sport –  basketball, volleyball and soccer will have its own camp.

“The importance of participating in sports at a young age cannot be overstated, especially in young girls. Unfortunately, girls face unique challenges in sports participation. Statistically, they have fewer opportunities to get involved, are less likely to play in the first place, and are much more likely to drop out earlier if they do,” the duo says on their website. 

Valuable life lessons

On their Her Turn website, Selland and Nelson weighed in heavily on the “benefits of athletic involvement” that include: “valuable lessons pertaining to hard work, collaboration and teamwork” and “developing skills such as leadership, time management, relationship building and overcoming adversity.” 

Also, they noted, “Sports have undoubtedly empowered us to be the women we are today.”

“Unfortunately, sports participation is becoming more and more burdensome on families. Sport experiences are expensive, time-consuming, and often require special equipment. We understand our privilege to have grown up in families who had the means to provide sport experiences for us. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case for all girls, including girls within the Brookings community. Our shared passions led us to dreaming of ways to make a difference in a meaningful way,” the website says.

“I grew up in sports my whole life,” Nelson said. “My parents really fostered an environment that allowed me to do that. Those kind of things kind of come naturally to me. I think a lot of benefits come from girls being involved in sports at a young age.”

“I think, obviously, working on creating Her Turn has really opened the door for something for us that we both enjoy,” Selland said. “I won’t speak for Tori, but I think pursuing this in the future is definitely something I think we would both enjoy. It kind of opened the door for this kind of work for us. We’d like to keep Her Turn growing in the years to come. The field has been fun for us to work in.

“I think we’re both super passionate about women in sports. Just through those conversations, we knew that we had a platform as college athletes; so we wanted to use that platform to try to do something. It’s been working with the community to make that happen.”

While it didn’t directly impact Her Turn, a recent ruling by the NCAA approving college athletes to use their names and likenesses for their personal benefit, does pave the way for a platform such as the one Selland and Nelson are using.  

Several options for donating to Her Turn. Go online to www.herturnsd.org. That will lead to a link to the Brookings Foundation. Additionally, the website tells the Her Turn story and gives some points of contact.

Contact John Kubal at jkubal@brookingsregister.com.