By Jim Hunt
For the Harrison County Journal
As I watched this year’s Women’s Final Four, I found myself thinking about something bigger than basketball.
I thought about how much the game has changed since I was a teenager.
Back then, girls’ basketball simply did not carry the attention or respect it does today. In many places, there were few programs, little fanfare, and not much sense that young women could dream very big through sports. If a school had a girls’ team at all, it often felt more like an extracurricular activity than a serious athletic program. That was just the reality of the times.
Things are very different now.
Today, women’s basketball has become one of the most exciting stories in sports. The athletes are skilled, competitive, and increasingly recognized beyond the court. Names like Sheryl Swoopes, Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi, and Caitlin Clark have helped elevate the women’s game and build a loyal following. While women’s basketball still trails the men’s game when it comes to salaries, endorsements, and media attention, there is no denying the progress that has been made.
And for me, that progress has a very personal face.
It looks like my 12-year-old granddaughter, Emery.
Emery has fallen in love with basketball. Not casually interested in it, not just playing when the season rolls around, but truly committed to it. She plays nearly year-round on AAU teams, works on her skills, watches the game, follows players, and gives a lot of thought to improving. At 5’11”, she is already taller than most girls her age, but what really strikes me is that she sometimes competes against girls who are just as tall, and sometimes taller. That tells you a lot about how much the sport has grown.
As a grandfather, that is a wonderful thing to watch. What pleases me most is not just that Emery is developing as a player. It is that she has found something that challenges her, excites her, and gives her purpose. In a world where young people are surrounded by distractions, there is something special about seeing a child become passionate about something that demands discipline, teamwork, sacrifice, and resilience.
Basketball is doing more than teaching her how to shoot, defend, or run the floor. It is teaching her how to work. It is teaching her how to compete. It is teaching her how to handle success and disappointment. Those lessons will matter long after the games are over.
And thankfully, she seems to be handling it all with balance. She is keeping her grades up, enjoying her childhood, and still finding joy in the process. That may be the best part of all. Sports should help shape a child, not overwhelm one. So far, basketball appears to be giving Emery exactly what you would hope, confidence, friendships, discipline, and something to strive for.
Watching the Women’s Final Four reminded me that the growth of women’s basketball is not just about television ratings, packed arenas, or famous names. It is also about the thousands of young girls across this country who now see possibilities that earlier generations could hardly imagine.
That includes one young girl in our family. And for this grandfather, that makes the rise of women’s basketball feel like more than a sports story.
It feels like progress.
