Cohoes athletes join ‘Women of Will’ campaign
Girls who participate in high school sports in the Cohoes School District will be sporting new athletic gear and will be eligible for unique opportunities thanks to a partnership with Under Armour and BSN Sports.
It ’s a good fit for all involved. The school district has signed a threeyear agreement to participate in a “Women of Will” campaign.
“Having two girls myself that play high school sports, the program really resonated with me,” said Jeff Huneau, the district ’s athletic director. “It is a great program to elevate girls in athletics.”
Huneau was a longtime teacher and boys’ varsity basketball coach in the district before taking over the athletic director position in January 2018. He learned about the “Women of Will” program in the spring when BSN Sports started to provide online training and seminars to coaches and administrators during the pandemic.
“Being a part of ‘ Women of Will’ and promoting that with our studentathletes will hopefully bring out more confidence in our girls and give them a sense of empowerment,” Huneau said.
Huneau said in his experience at Cohoes, girls sometimes need extra encouragement to participate in sports.
“I don’t know if this is a thing here in Cohoes, but I just feel like sometimes our girls aren’t very confident in themselves,” Huneau said. “They are good athletes and they just lack confidence.”
That’s where “Women of Will” stepped in — a natural progression of an existing relationship with Under Armour, Huneau said.
While Under ARMOUR was the brand of choice for the district in purchasing team uniforms and practice jerseys for both boys’ and girls’ teams, Huneau said “Women of Will” will help encourage girls to join the district ’s athletic teams.
“When I took over as athletic director, I wanted to see kids and members of the community wearing gear that promoted our schools — gear that promoted the Cohoes Tigers,” Huneau said. “Kids and adults love the Under Armour brand and the ‘Women of Will’ uniforms and logos are especially unique. It ’s certainly going to help with school pride and spirit.”
Other opportunities offered through the partnership include inschool awards and national nominations for student/athletes participating on girls’ teams, large banners that promote both the Tigers and “Women of Will” and ongoing online support for coaches.
“Cohoes is the first and only school in Section II to participate,” said Dennis Bates, regional sales manager for BSN Sports, a national company that was formerly Anaconda Sports and is
affiliated with Varsity and Spirit sport apparel brands. “This is obviously something that catches on — we’ve seen that in other parts of the country. Other districts will see the advantages ... it ’s all about empowerment and giving girls confidence early on at the high school level.
“Women’s sports have always taken a back seat to men’s sports,” Bates said, noting that he also worked as an associate athletic director at Siena College. “This is a pretty cool program that elevates the experience for girls.”