In celebration of National Girls and Women in Sports Day on Feb. 2, the Athletics Department hosted a breakfast at the Stokes Center for members of the school’s 14 women’s intercollegiate sports teams, as well as female coaches and administrators at the University.

Northeast Conference Associate Commissioner for Compliance and Governance and NEC Senior Woman Administrator Lisa Archbald was the keynote speaker at the event.

“Lisa approaches everything she does with positivity,” said SFU Associate Director for Student-Athlete Development Shannon Corbett, who helped organize the event.

“She was able to touch on what it means to be a female athlete and on how to let God lead the way in your life.”

Archbald was a four-year letterwinner in soccer at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington.

“She is someone who I thought would be able to empower our female athletes and she was able to do just that,” said Corbett.

Corbett said that the breakfast event was very well-received by those who participated and that she hopes to make it an annual tradition that celebrates the accomplishments of the University’s female student-athletes.

“One of my favorite moments from the event was just being able to see a gym full of all of our female athletes,” said Corbett, who competed on the cross country and track and field teams at Belmont Abbey College during her collegiate career.

“I found this to be such an empowering moment. Looking over the history of athletics and seeing just how far women have come.

“Seeing 240 female athletes in one place was something special.”

SFU Assistant Director for Student-Athlete Development Amy McNally also helped organize the event.

“One of my favorite moments would have to be the gear that was represented to the students as they walked in. We were able to collect gear from each female team,” said McNally, who was a three-year starter at defender for Niagara University’s field hockey team.

McNally served as an assistant coach in that sport at SFU before moving to the Office of Student-Athlete Development.

Members of Red Flash sports teams who were traveling on Feb. 2 were able to Zoom into the event, as were female student-athletes who were in quarantine due to Covid.