SBCC Athletics Celebrates National Girls & Women in Sports Day
By Jimmy Friery
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – Santa Barbara City College Athletics is proud to celebrate National Girls & Women in Sports Day (NGWSD) on Wednesday, February 4. To participate, learn more, or share your own story, visit the Women's Sports Foundation website.
The Department was thrilled to have long-tenured Women's Basketball Head Coach Sandrine Krul represent SBCC at the annual Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table (SBART) Women in Sports Luncheon on Monday. She was a part of a panel including UC Santa Barbara Athletic Director Kelly Barsky, UC Santa Barbara Softball Head Coach Jo Evans, and Westmont Women's Swimming Head Coach Jill Lin. The Noozhawk article about the event can be found here.
While the thoughts were still fresh, we asked Krul—and other SBCC women coaches—what does sport mean to you? What have you gotten out of athletics?
Krul: Basketball has served me well for decades—first as a player and now as a coach—but the greatest lessons it gave me went far beyond the game itself.
Sport, and basketball in particular, gave me a space where my strength, competitiveness, and mental toughness were not only accepted, but encouraged. Through the game, I learned to be confident, have self-respect, and it became my identity. That sense of self-awareness through basketball helped me gain such an understanding of challenges on and off the court.
Over time, those experiences became the foundation of my Humanistic coaching philosophy and the culture of MTXE—Mental Toughness, Xtra Effort.
With over four decades in athletics, I learned perseverance, accountability, and the importance of lifting others, and those principles continue to guide my work in empowering those I coach and teach. I revere the game, not just respect it!
Kat Niksto, Women's Volleyball: My favorite part of coaching—and specifically coaching at the junior college level—is helping the young women of the future grow and mature.
Sports have helped shape me to be the strong coach, mom, wife, friend, and woman I am today.
The community that exists in sport is so beautiful. I can't imagine the world without sports, and I love how much increased attention women's sports, specifically, are getting recently. I hope that trend continues and grows further!
Monica Salas, Softball: Sport, to me, means that there is a safe space for women to experience growth in the greatest form—as a competitor, teammate, and individual.
Sport presents opportunities for women to develop leadership and build character through resiliency, teamwork, dedication and discipline. Through sport, women develop the tools that they will need to succeed in life post-sport, through their experiences in their respective sport. Playing a sport shows you that, as an athlete, that success in life may not always be the big promotion, but in the preparation prior to it, just as in a game you won't always be the one to score the winning run or the one that leads your team to victory. But true success on the playing field comes in the preparation prior to competition.
Sport teaches us that showing up even when it's hard or when you don't want to is when true resiliency and discipline are built. Sport, to me, is more than just a sport, but a safe place where growth can occur in the best ways—where your experiences can translate how you, as an individual, can show up in your life.
Athletics has given me more than I could've ever imagined. Some of the greatest friendships, mentors, education, and life experiences have come from being part of athletics. Now, as a coach, I have the opportunity to be able to give back to my community, along with the program that made such a huge impact in my life and playing career.
Being able to be a part of such a pivotal moment in the lives of student-athletes is a full-circle moment that I am thankful for.
Santa Barbara City College Athletics is proud to provide equitable opportunities for young women to reach their goals through rigorous academic and athletic preparation and support through diverse teams focused on instilling personal responsibility, effective communication, teamwork and the ability to overcome adversity, as per the Department's mission statement.