Rose Nkumu, City High School’s new athletic secretary, has recently started a club for female athletic leaders at our school called the Lead-Her program. This team consists of coach-selected players from their city high teams who demonstrate leadership within their teams at City High. This group is here to represent student-athletes and their commitment, grit, and positive influence throughout their various programs. 

Lead-Her athletes will meet twice a month during fourth period to discuss leadership throughout their high school years so far. This group is also to help some find their voice and confidence and strengthen their leadership, whether that is on the court, field, track, course, dance floor, or in the pool. 

“I think the main this is just trying to build that confidence and that leadership, whether it’s, you know, in a current season or gearing up for a sport in later seasons, just giving them the resources and opportunities to step into those roles and surrounding themselves with as many role models as possible,” Nkumu said when asked about what she hopes to see in this group. “Hopefully that doesn’t just translate into athletics but into their lives as well after sports and after school.”

Nkumu hopes that it will also help younger generations as they start to build their confidence and find their voice in and outside of sports as well to continue to grow female athletics all around. 

“We are hoping that this trickles down to the junior high and elementary school girls,” she said. “We are hoping to get some activities and events at [the junior high and elementary] schools so we can surround them [with] highschool girls that they look up.”