PWSA Helps Strong Girls Become Powerful Women

As an organization dedicated to promoting opportunities in sports for girls and women, PWSA invites you to join us!

Whether you’re active in sports, or you have an interest in promoting opportunities for girls and women, there’s a way for you to be involved!

Our Mission

To help girls and women find their power through sports.

PWSA’s mission is to help girls and women in Arizona build successful lives through participation in sports and fitness, by forming key partnerships to provide education, programming and economic support.

Our Vision

Girls and women in Arizona will embrace sports and fitness as a tool for developing critical life skills to enhance the quality of their personal and professional lives.

Our Strategy

About Us

Phoenix Women's Sports Association (PWSA) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization formed in August 2001 to help girls and women find their power through sports. PWSA is modeled after the Women's Sports Foundation's (WSF), which was founded by Billie Jean King in 1974. Led by its founder Non Lee, who is also a WSF Board of Trustee member, PWSA presents a Women’s Sports Foundation Community Action Program, designed to raise awareness of the importance of girls' and women's sports at the grass roots level.

PWSA reaches out to underserved girls and women to give them opportunities to reach their greatest potential by building confidence and self-esteem through participation in sports and fitness activities. Research has documented the positive effects of girls' and women's participation in sports of all ages

"Teenage female athletes are less likely to use marijuana, cocaine or other illicit drugs (such as LSD, PCP, speed or heroin), less likely to be suicidal, less likely to smoke and more likely to have positive body images that female non-athletes.” (The Women’s Sports Foundation Report: Health Risks and the Team Athlete, March 2001.)

“Teenage female athletes are less than half as likely to get pregnant as female non-athletes (5% and 11%, respectively), more likely to report that they never had sexual intercourse than female non-athletes (54% and 41% respectively), and more likely to experience their first sexual intercourse later in adolescence than female non-athletes.” (The Women’s Sports Foundation Report: Sport and Teen Pregnancy, May 1998.)

“Research suggests that girls who participate in sports are more likely to experience academic success and graduate from high school than those who do not play sports.” (Women’s Sports Foundation Report: Minorities in Sports, 1989.)

“Women who are active in sports and recreational activities as girls feel greater confidence, self-esteem and pride in their physical and social selves than those who were sedentary as kids.” (Miller Lite Report, 1985; Melpomene Institute, 1995.)

“Between 1971-2000, female college athletes of color have seen a dramatic increase (955%) in NCAA sports participation opportunities. Women athletes of color received approximately $82 million in college scholarship assistance in 1989, compared to less than $100,000 in 1971.” (Women’s Sports Foundation: Report on Title IX and Race in Intercollegiate Sport, 2003.)

“More than four out of five executive businesswomen (82%) played sports growing up – and the vast majority say lessons learned on the playing field have contributed to their success in business, according to the results of a national survey.” (Game Face, From the Locker Room to the Boardroom: A Survey on Sports in the Lives of Women Business Executives, Feb. 2002.)

“According to a study of 2,993 women, older women who exercise tend to be motivated toward physical activity by expectations of benefit to their health and longevity. Inactive women tend not to have the self-confidence, skill and experience with physical activity that active women do.” (Melpomene Journal, Fall 1997, Vo. 16, 3, pp.23-28)

Each year, PWSA partners with women collegiate and professional basketball players to provide a free basketball clinic in celebration of National Girls and Women in Sports Day. Working with collegiate and professional athletes gives the 125 nine- to 14-year-old girls who attend the event the opportunity to witness first-hand the benefits of participation, discipline, consistency and dedication. This annual event is so successful that PWSA is, unfortunately, forced to turn girls away. PWSA hopes to someday be able to hold this event more frequently in order to accommodate as many eager young female athletes as possible.

With the help of its sponsor, Arizona Public Services (APS), PWSA supports the Phoenix Mercury and ASU Women’s Basketball programs by purchasing tickets for community-based organizations (such as the City of Phoenix Department of Parks and Recreation, and the Boys & Girls Club) that provide services to lower income, at-risk neighborhoods. PWSA’s goal is to raise awareness of the collegiate and professional opportunities that exist for girls and women – for our daughters, granddaughters, nieces, sisters, aunts, mothers, and grandmothers – through sports.

“Many people dream of realizing extraordinary accomplishments, but a rare few have the tenacity and talent to follow their dream. At just seven years old, Ahwatukee resident Amanda Secord has already begun the journey to set her dream in motion.”  (Kim Van Syoc, Awhatukee Foothill News)

Unfortunately, tenacity and talent aren’t always enough. In Amanda’s case, lack of funds almost brought her dream of becoming an Olympic figure skater to a screeching halt. Amanda’s mother, Kimberly, exhausted her personal finances and looked everywhere for funds before coming to PWSA for help. Although PWSA did not have the money to give to Amanda, the PWSA Board of Directors was determined that Amanda’s dream would not die. PWSA held a raffle and -- after three weeks and with the generosity of Valley residents and businesses -- raised more than $3,000 to help offset Amanda’s expenses and keep her on the ice. Amanda’s situation underscores the serious need for funding for girls’ and women’s sports in our Valley community.

PWSA believes that every girl should be able to pursue her athletic dreams, and that economics should not be an obstacle to participation. Through its continuing fundraising efforts, PWSA hopes to implement ongoing grant and scholarship programs to help the girls and women of Arizona pursue their dreams through sports.