In the past three years, Josie Riggins has played more sports than she can easily remember. While basketball is her favorite, she has tried out fencing, long jump, hurdles, martial arts, yoga, golf, volleyball, soccer, field hockey and lacrosse.
And Josie, a James City County fifth grader, is 10 years old.
“It’s all so fun,” she said. “There’s nothing I dislike, although field hockey in dense grass is just hard. But I will still play it.”
Josie is part of Girls Sports Academy, a program founded in 2022 by Lydia Scrofani, a former semi-pro soccer player and collegiate and high school coach. Scrofani was dismayed at how many girls dropped out of athletics by middle school.
Aware that young athletes often feel pressure to specialize in a single sport, Scrofani decided to go in the opposite direction: she would introduce girls to more sports. That change, she hoped, would encourage them to take risks, gain confidence in unfamiliar settings, find joy in hard work and improvement, and avoid injuries and burnout.
GSA targets girls ages 7 to 13, the age when girls tend to be increasingly self-conscious about how they fit in with their peers. Scrofani, 45, aims to show them that they can be different, as well as aggressive and competitive, while also forming deep friendships based on kindness.
“We’re building up girls through sports,” she said. “Trophies and awards are great, but to me, youth sports should be about being healthy, active and unafraid of failure, regardless of outcome. That’s what will help these girls in life, with things like being leaders at school, asking for raises at work — just pushing themselves.”
GSA offers fall, winter and spring seasons, each introducing multiple sports plus discussions on strength-training, nutrition, mental wellness and goal-setting with volunteer and guest coaches. Girls can attend once or twice weekly and join group outings to local college games.
The program also hosts special events and summer retreats that have drawn families from West Point to Virginia Beach. On Sept. 13, for example, GSA held its inaugural Daddy Daughter Golf Tournament, a fundraiser for scholarships.
The competition at Golden Horseshoe Golf Club in Williamsburg featured 36 teams of girls ages 5 to 17 partnered with their fathers or grandfathers. Scrofani stressed the importance of supportive male role models on girls’ self-esteem.
“The earlier that our daughters can start to get the message of how strong and capable they are, the better,” she said.
GSA currently has no physical headquarters but partners with James City County Parks & Recreation, William & Mary, Christopher Newport University and Hampton Roads Academy in Newport News, using schools, parks and fitness centers for outdoor and indoor playing spaces. Its two-night summer camp is at the Jamestown 4-H Educational Center.
All programs operate with Scrofani’s “GRIT Tracker” system — “Girls Respond with Increased Tenacity” — which rewards athletes for positive steps such as working on skills at home. GSA has equipment girls can check out.
“What you can control is your desire to compete,” Scrofani noted. “Girls tend to become passive as they get older — always passing the ball rather than taking the shot — and also worry about being ‘perfect.’ But making mistakes is how you grow.”
Josie was one of GSA’s first participants, enrolling in the program’s 2023 fall season. She also has been to summer camp, where she added archery, kayaking and nighttime glow sports to her resume, and played in the golf tournament with her dad, Terrence Riggins.
“I’ve just seen her blossom,” said Lydia Riggins, Josie’s mother. “It’s really less about sports than what the coaches pour into these girls. Josie isn’t shy about diving into new things or talking to people; she’ll walk right up to the new kids at school and give them a tour. I believe GSA has turned her into a leader.”
Riggins is hopeful that her second daughter, 5-year-old Evie, will be a GSA participant, too: “She’s more into ballet and dance, but we’d love her to try just one season.” (The Rigginses also have a 2-year-old son, Zeke, and wish there were a Boys Sports Academy).
Sports have been central to Scrofani’s life since she began playing soccer at age 4 on a military base in Germany, where her family was stationed. Her father signed her up for an all-boys soccer team rather than put her into cheerleading. “He knew I’d be that girl with her elbows up, saying, ‘Don’t mess with me,’” she recalled.
Scrofani played varsity soccer, basketball and track athlete in high school in the state of Washington and was a decorated two-year captain of the soccer team at the University of South Carolina. After graduating with a degree in marketing and a psychology minor, she played a year of semi-pro soccer with the Boston Renegades, which won a 2001 national championship.
Scrofani next jumped into coaching as a graduate assistant at Farleigh Dickinson University, where she earned an MBA. In 2004, she moved to Williamsburg for what would be a three-year stint as an assistant coach at William & Mary. She met her husband, Chris Scrofani, a former W&M and professional soccer player and one of the founders of the Williamsburg Indoor Sports Complex, two weeks after arriving in town.
Lydia Scrofani has also helped coach soccer at CNU and taught marketing part-time at the university; served as head soccer coach at Warhill High School for five years; and was girls director for the Tidewater Sharks, a soccer club, for three years.
Today, Scrofani is busy growing GSA and directing the girls academy for Virginia Reign, another soccer organization. And she is raising two children: Grace, 16, who competes in cross country and lacrosse at Jamestown High School, and Braden, 12, who is obsessed with soccer.
Moving forward, Scrofani hopes to help open GSA chapters around Virginia and eventually the United States. She is working on licensing, curriculum and a magazine that will feature insights on how to help young female athletes succeed.
“Watching girls go from being timid to feeling empowered is more rewarding than anything I ever did on the field myself,” she said. “Really, it’s not even close.”
Alison Johnson, ajohnsondp@yahoo.com
Want to know more?
For more information on seasonal sports programs, summer retreats and volunteer opportunities with Girls Sports Academy, visit girlssportsacademy.org or email info@girlssportsacademy.org. GSA’s nonprofit arm collects donations to fund scholarships and free sports equipment.