New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-07-12
ORGANIZING ATHLETIC CLUES FOR 100000 GIRLS
Her Work Of Transforming New Horh
Meagre School Children Into Rosy
Checked, Well Poised Sportswomen
Has Won for Miss Elizabeth
Burchenal National Fame.
CT I~S

Board OF Education. engaged experts
for that purpose. AS, for instance,
Miss Applebee came over from Bryn
Mawr to instruct New York teach
ers in hockey. She is an English
woman and a hockey enthusiast, and
one fire thing about her teaching in
the English way is that all the girle
have a chance to do something IN.
the game, weak as well as strong"
Teachers Direct School Clubs.
THE teachers who have charge ct
the girls school clubs-we don't csE
them tcams-always, in after-schooi
athletics, give much more than the
enc hour a week required OF them.
They are devoted to their work, and
the Board OF Education is taking this
into consideration in their promo
ton and advancement.
LAS the work has developed we
have a lot of trained teachers so
that such number do not have TO
come TO classes. We now keep
about 800 to 900 teachers in classes,
where during our first year we had
only fifteen teachers. four schools
and 500 children. Now we have
about 275 schools where teachers are
conducting after-school athletics.
and in the remainder of the 500
schools we are getting things or
. ganized as fast as we can. The
School Board has now put this work
ir the regular physical training work
and athletics, and every gymnsstic
lesson in the city has to contain
games and dancing.
IAN indication OF real advance this
wear is the increase in the number OF
girls qualifying in sll-round athletics,
as this means a full season OF pre-
scribed athletic practice and is or
much greater benefit to the individ-
ual girls than merely taking part in
a contest.
The development of hockey tor
high schools and swimming for both
elementary and high schools has
been an important advance.
Many Additional Sports for Next Year.
Roller skating (out of doors), BIZ
cycling, rope skipping, gymnastic
dancing, baseball throwing, pin ball,
heavy gymnastics and coasting lin
,, rural districts) have been added this
year to the list of sanctioned activi-
ties and will be developed next year.
, THE schools have field days now,
and we have opened eighteen new
athletic centres in schoolhouses
which have outdoor courts of de-
sirablc dimensions. The centres are
in Brooklyn. Queens, Manhattan and
The Bronx.
Another thing which has greatly
helped the movement toward girls
athletics has been the cooperation
of the Department OF Health in
sending physicians to examine girls
at the request of the director Of
physical training, so that girls are
allowed only what is best for their
development
Girls Have Special Athletic Grounds.
As result Of this movement the
Girls Athletic League has secured
from the Park Commissioner two
plots of ground, which they plan to
equip as an athletic field 10 meet the
requirements of hockey, tennis, ball,
track work and other events, with 4
big swimming pool amply supplied
with dressing rooms and showers,
and dancing pavilion such as girls
dream" about.
With more than four hundred
wealthy and influential women serv-
ing as officers, donors. patrons and
lust plain members of the Girls Ath-
let;c League they are very apt to OBJ
tain whatever they want in the way
OF extended athletics. The league
pays most OF the expenses sppcr-
tanning to its work, but the School
Board has also assumed its share Of
the obligations and is more and
more willing to meet the wishes and
necessities of the Girls League, of
which the president of the Board OF
Education is member.
Doesn't big athletic field for
women mean that the young genera
ton OF greater New York means 10
turn out athletes with bright. alert
minds, wholesome aims in life and
tie rosy outdoor cheeks that be-
speak healthful exercise' And isn't
all this wonderful testimony to the
altruism and ability of one young
woman, Miss Elizabeth Burchenal?
Girls Become Good Sportswomen.
What like about our work" en-
phasized Miss Catharine S. Leverich,
first president OF the organization,
us that girls learn how to lose. In