PEI·NewThe Kensington Area Minor Baseball Association is taking a swing at how to get more girls and women involved in the sport. The board is making it a priority to increase participation among not just players but also umpires, coaches, managers, score keepers, pitch counters, and volunteers.’Girls need to see some women behind the bench,’ says member of association’s boardSheehan Desjardins · CBC News · Posted: Sep 09, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 34 minutes agoLynn Anne Hogan, shown in a file photo, hopes ‘just to see more girls on the field at the end of the day. And we need more women behind the bench. Girls need to see some women behind the bench.’ (Connor Lamont/CBC)The Kensington Area Minor Baseball Association is taking a swing at how to get more girls and women involved in the sport.The board is making it a priority to increase participation among not just players but also umpires, coaches, managers, scorekeepers, pitch counters and volunteers. “We think if young girls see women in different roles, then that will inspire them to get involved — or stay involved, which is also a big part of it,” said Lynn Anne Hogan, a member of the board’s executive. “Often you can attract the girls, but then if there’s no other girls there, they sometimes drop out.”The association doesn’t have any all-female teams but Hogan said they have been seeing an increase in girls playing over the last couple of years. This past season, 28 of the roughly 130 players were girls, with the majority in the younger age groups, she said. While the big-picture goal is to have an all-female team one day, the Kensington Area Minor Baseball Association says the short-term goal is retaining the athletes they have. (Shutterstock / kivnl)”We certainly see them drop off,” said Hogan. “A lot of girls are very competitive and they want to train and play hard.”There’s also a social component, Hogan said. “They want to be with their friends and they want to see other girls on the field with them.” Inspiring future athletes Reports have shown that by the end of their teenage years, girls tend to leave organized sports at much higher rates than boys. Hogan hopes the success of some of the other athletes from Kensington will help change that locally.For example, two girls from the area recently represented P.E.I. at the Atlantic Baseball Championships with the U14 team and another player just returned from Canada Games, where female baseball made its historic debut. “Everyone was glued to the TV,” she said. “That was really cool and they will inspire other girls to kind of try to reach those levels.”Hogan said the association is also doing its part. It plans to give girls more opportunities to try the sport before they register, and registration is discounted for girls playing U11 and up. “We’ve recognized that we have lower participation by females and by eliminating perhaps that barrier, at least they can try it at a reduced rate as well — and hopefully they stick with it,” said Hogan. “I think you just have to provide girls the opportunity to try it, because I think when they try it, they’re gonna fall in love with it.”
Kensington minor baseball looking to get more girls and women involved at all levels
