Fieldhouse. October 2, 2025.
You don’t have to wear a jersey or, say, a gold medal to thrive in the world of sport.
That was one of the many powerful messages heard by female Grade 7 and 8 students on Thursday in Regina at the inaugural Saskatchewan Roughrider Foundation Girls Summit: Her Game, Her Voice, Her Future. The inaugural event will visit Saskatoon on Friday.
“You don’t necessarily have to be good at a sport to learn about it, to be passionate about it, to want to work in it, and to be valued in working in it,” Arielle Zerr, the Roughriders’ Director of Communications, told 100 youngsters who travelled to the Regina Fieldhouse from throughout southern Saskatchewan.
“You can be a part of sport even if you don’t play the sport. You can make an incredible contribution to the sport. If you’re here saying, ‘I don’t know if this sport is for me,’ that’s OK. You can want to be around the energy and the team environment. You can want be part of something bigger than yourself, like sport is, and not be the athlete … and that’s me.
“I get so much fulfillment every single day. I never once feel like I’m not part of the team just because I didn’t play. So pursue the passion in sport. Even if you don’t feel like you’re good enough to go to the next level, there are so many amazing things that you can do.”
Or, you can embrace and excel at more than one sport, as is the case with Georgette Reed.
The daughter of Roughriders icon George Reed has a varied athletic resume that includes swimming, track and field, bobsleigh and water polo. Her lengthy list of accomplishments includes competing in discus for Canada at the 1992 Summer Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain.
“I think what’s important is to try anything,” Reed said. “There’s going to be so much that gets thrown at you. There are going to be so many opportunities, but try everything.
“When I was very little, before I even got into swimming or ballet, I wanted to be a football player. I wanted to be the first female in the CFL. I wanted to follow after my dad. I wanted to run the ball. I wanted to kick the ball. I wanted to do all those things. But back then, women weren’t allowed to play football, so I had to try something else.
“There are going to be times when you’re doing things and you think that you’re doing the greatest thing and you’re loving it and then something happens and you have to try something else.
“The one thing that my dad taught me was to never give up. Never quit. You may be doing something and it may not be where you need to be, but instead of just stopping and not moving forward, try something else. Move in a different direction.
“That’s what I’ve done my whole career. I learned that from sports. I learned that you don’t win all the time. Sometimes you are bringing up the rear, but that’s OK, because you’ve got a good viewpoint of where you want to be and where you want to go and what you want to do.
“So keep believing in you. If you believe in you, then that’s the biggest supporter that you need to be able to go forward and do the things that you want to do. And you never know where you’ll end up.”
Reed and Zerr were part of a panel, moderated by Sabeen Ahmad, that also included Aimee Kowalski and Adrienne Zuk. Kowalski and Zuk have both been prominent members of the Regina Riot — a founding franchise in the Western Women’s Canadian Football League, which held its inaugural season in 2011.
Earlier, Reed spoke of a time when “women weren’t allowed to play football,” but the sporting landscape has changed for the better and expanded opportunities for everyone — athletes, coaches and administrators.
“A big thing I learned, specifically from football, that I was able to translate into real life and the real world is working with other people in a team environment,” Zuk said.
“I used to work as a registered nurse. What football really taught me to bring back to my team and my work environment was believing that your teammates are doing the best they can at that moment.
“When you start to change your way of thinking, it brings a positive perspective into that team environment. Instead of undermining each other and picking apart people’s shortfalls and mistakes, you really are patient.
“Bringing that into the workplace and understanding that each person functions and brings different strengths to the team and figuring out how to utilize that is really what I moved from being on a football team to my work environment. It wasn’t just at work, but also in personal relationships and other team environments.”
Those sentiments were echoed by Kowalski, who also recalls a time when certain sports were male-exclusive. At a very young age, for example, she played baseball on a boys’ team.
She eventually took up softball and earned an athletic scholarship from Texas-based Galveston College. Her versatility was such that she also played intercollegiate soccer at Iowa Wesleyan College.
In the spirit of Georgette Reed and her encouragement to “try something else,” Kowalski also participated in basketball, badminton and cross-country running while honing the athletic skills that led her to take up football at age 22.
“From there on, it was life-changing for me,” she recalled.
“If you would have asked me in 2011 if I would be up here having a conversation with Sabeen and sitting with Georgette and Arielle and Adrienne, I would have said, ‘There’s not a chance.’ Not a chance.
“It wasn’t what I had thought I would be doing, but I didn’t really have a thought of what I would be doing. I think that’s the important thing everyone in these bleachers needs to realize: This could be you. There’s nothing stopping you now.
“I obviously joined the Regina Riot in its first year of playing … and I still play. I got into coaching and took the opportunity, and that’s the really important thing. When there’s the opportunity, you have to seize it. You can’t let it go by, because you never know where it’s going to lead you.”
In Kowalski’s case, she quarterbacked Team Canada at the 2013 and 2017 world championships. She is now the Women’s Football Growth and Development Co-ordinator for Football Saskatchewan.
Zuk, the Riot’s Defensive Co-ordinator, also has coaching experience with the Prairie Football Conference’s Regina Thunder.
Music took precedence for Zerr, who is classically trained in voice. She also played soccer into her teenaged years before studying journalism and working in the media. She joined the Roughriders in 2019.
Reed is a mental health and wellness facilitator and an empowerment coach.
A panel discussion will also be part of Friday’s Girls Summit at Saskatoon’s Merlis Belsher Place.
As was the case in Regina, the girls in attendance will visit activity stations at which football theory, basics of the sport such as throwing and catching, strength and conditioning, yoga and agility will be highlighted.
The Day 1 program also included a mental health-related Win with Wellness presentation by Roughriders players Brett Lauther and Charbel Dabire.
“This is being held to grow the opportunities in football for girls in the province,” Roughrider Foundation Executive Director Cindy Fuchs said.
“They’re getting introduced to football skills, but also mindfulness, strength training and a little bit of understanding the different roles you can have as a female in football, so there will be lots of girls who are pretty powerful women in the sport of football.”
