Mission Statement

The Bay Area Women's Sports Initiative (BAWSI) is a public benefit, nonprofit corporation with a mission to create programs and partnerships through which women athletes bring health, hope and wholeness to our community. Founded in 2005 by Olympic and World Cup soccer stars Brandi Chastain and Julie Foudy and Marlene Bjornsrud, former general manager of the San Jose CyberRays women's professional soccer team, BAWSI provides a meaningful path for women athletes to become a more visible and valued part of the Bay Area sports culture.

BAWSI's history

Watch a YouTube video highlighting Julie Foudy's soccer career.

The concept of BAWSI was inspired by one of the most spectacular achievements in women's sports history and born out of one its biggest disappointments.

In the summer of 1999, the U.S. Women's National Soccer Team defeated China to win the Women's World Cup in the Rose Bowl, the climax of a three-week, 16-team tournament that remains history's most successful women's sports event, drawing more than 600,000 spectators. It also represented the most visible achievement of the women's sports movement in the United States since the 1972 enactment of federal Title IX, which required schools and colleges to provide equal sports opportunities to girls and women. Athletes like Brandi Chastain and Julie Foudy, who led that team to the World Cup, spawned the Women's United Soccer Association in 2001, the world's first women's professional soccer league. But in 2003, after only three seasons, the league folded, and team organizations created by some of the most accomplished athletes and administrators in women's sports were disbanded.

The Bay Area Women's Sports Initiative - BAWSI - arose from the remnants of that effort, created to ensure that the WUSA would not be the zenith of a short-lived golden age of women's sports but rather another step toward women's full achievement in the sports world. BAWSI's programs began with a critical look at the unmet needs in our community and took shape after imagining a profound change for a better world.

Called together by Chastain, Foudy and Marlene Bjornsrud, former general manager of the WUSA's inaugural champion San Jose CyberRays, a group of community and sports leaders began working on BAWSI's concept in early 2005. The rallying point was a consensus that the full aspirations of women in sports are yet to be realized, and that the full benefits of sports in society cannot be achieved without women. The task was to create a private, non-profit organization in the San Francisco Bay Area to reach those twin goals. By May 2005, BAWSI's basic strategy was formulated and its website at www.bawsi.org up and running. BAWSI began to utilize the existing community of women athletes in practical programs demonstrating the valuable societal benefits of sports and women's importance in this realm.

In cooperation with the School Health Clinics of Santa Clara County, BAWSI launched a pilot program to combat obesity and low self-esteem among teen-age girls at W.C. Overfelt High School in San Jose. Utilizing the GoGirlGo! curriculum created by the Women's Sports Foundation, BAWSI created the BAWSI Girls Program, and enlisted the women's basketball players at San Jose State University to coach girls in an after-school exercise program. The success of the BAWSI Girls Program, using college athletes as mentors for younger girls, resulted in the spread of the program to four schools by the fall of 2005 and eight schools by the spring of 2006.

Meanwhile under CEO Bjornsrud, BAWSI made two important strides toward establishing itself as an organization. In June 2005, the City of San Jose granted BAWSI office space in its new City Hall. Within weeks of that announcement, the Internal Revenue Service approved BAWSI's legal status as a non-profit public benefit corporation, enabling the organization to solicit tax-deductible donations.

By the end of its first year, BAWSI had added two important programs. "BAWSI Women Running the Country" enlists accomplished amateur and professional athletes as mentors for women leaders' personal fitness programs. These women leaders also mentor the college athletes, helping them transition from competitive sports into other careers. The BAWSI Dads and Daughters program creates opportunities for fathers to bond with daughters through participating in sports together and attending women's athletic events.

BAWSI is also an advocate for all social and policy issues that impact the lives of girls and women in sport. It has been active in opposing attempts to water down Title IX, the landmark 1972 federal law requiring schools and colleges to provide equal opportunities to female students. In California BAWSI supports the full implementation of Assembly Bill 2404, a recently-passed law that requires equitable distribution of public funding in community youth programs.