As was noted in our preview last Friday of the 7^th annual Empowering Girls for Life (EGFL) event, founder Bill Conroy and his staff continue to present an educational and informative half-day gathering of several key speakers with powerful insights into fastpitch success on and off the field.

The 2024 edition was held on Saturday, August 10^th at the Westin Chicago Lombard – Marriott and consisted of the following line-up of speakers:

• Karen Weekly, Univ. of Tennessee Head Softball Coach,
• NiJaree Canaday, the 2024 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year at Stanford, now at Texas Tech,
• Ellie Cooper, Certified Mental Performance Coach, Dir. of Player Performance, Florida State,
• Jordy Bahl, Univ. of Nebraska, two-time All-American and DI National Champion,
• Joey Lye, former college coach, D3 All-American, Pan Am Games Gold Medalist and Olympic Bronze medalist at Tokyo Olympics with Team Canada, 
• Joy Roeder, sports journalist and event producer for over a quarter century.

After the last half-hour panel finished at 1:30 pm, the event concluded with the Fan Fest that included the donation of over $100,000 in scholarships and prizes.

Overall, it was another rousing success complimented by all involved including the speakers.

Joy Roeder chaired the last session, which featured Joey Lye, a former college coach at Bucknell, an NFCA All-American at Williams College in 2008 and also a 2015 Pan American Games Gold Medalist with Team Canada and loved what she saw on and off stage.

“As a parent who has taken their daughter to countless female empowerment-type of events,” Joy told Line Drive Softball earlier today, “and as someone who has been in charge of coordinating and speaking at events like these for 27 years, this was one of my Top 5 all-time favorites.”

“For parents of any age female athlete, this was a must attend event!”

Hailey Roach, the Events Coordinator for this year’s EGFL, recently finished her own softball playing career at Youngstown State Univ (2000-2023) and, prior to that, competed at the club level in the Midwest.

She too walked away as a big fan of what Saturday’s gathering in Chicago provided.

“It was nothing short of outstanding excitement and inspiring women,” she begins. “The audience was filled with over 800 young girls and their families who took the time to appreciate everything this event is aimed for.”

“The sponsors were able to connect with the girls and give them a lot of good advice and support and our speakers were inspiring and open, with some hitting topics that made them vulnerable… but that is something that makes this event so special!”

Being part of the EGFL staff, Hailey and Joy had great seats to see and hear all the instruction from the stage and they offered their perspectives on what the speakers touched upon that impacted the audience:

Jordyn Bahl

* Jordy spoke about sacrifice and what she has had to do to be great. Her family is her top priority and I think that showed the girls a lot about putting what you love first. – Hailey

* Jordy shed light on how much pressure it is to perform on the biggest stage and how much we as spectators really don’t know what individuals are going through. 

She said her biggest battle was fighting off the expectations of others and how her injury, although “it sucked,” was the best thing to find out who she was as a person not just a ball player.  – Joy

*****

Nijaree Canady

* Nijaree Canady touched on similar subjects like keeping your circle tight and you are who you surround yourself with. She spoke on how the people in her life have helped her get to where she is now.

Discipline was also another recurring subject she hit upon as she explained what it takes to work hard but are you willing to do so?  Another key Nijaree shared was to not forget where you came from. – Hailey

* Her humility shines through her like a beam of bright light! She is one of the best college athletes around and yet still has a kind spirit and genuine soul.  – Joy

*****

Karen Weekly

* Coach Karen is a very special coach and my biggest take-away from her interview was positivity. She described that her main goal is to develop her players as good people first, and good softball players second.

Another thing that stuck out to me was that Coach strives for her girls to become lawyers in the sense that she wants them to keep the hard work and determination they have learned from the sport and incorporate it into their lives every day. – Hailey

* I loved hearing of Coach’s journey from attending a “no-name” college to being a very successful lawyer and now softball coach.  She offers a very unique perspective. – Joy

*****

Ellie Cooper

* Ellie Cooper did a great job of hitting the more mental side of things and emphasized that sleep is one of the most important things to do to keep yourself healthy.

She asked the young players: “What are you doing with your time?” The big takeaway is to fill your time with things that make you happy and with the people that make you the best version of yourself. – Hailey

* Ellie shared her thoughts on what are important and key practical tools and expectations to achieve goals in your life. – Joy

*****

Joey Lye & Joy Roeder

* Joy and Joey kept it light and fun; their main goal was to uplift the girls and make sure they always remember their worth. They brought the energy and a different look from the athletes’ perspective.

The main takeaway from these businesswomen was to always have confidence in yourself and keep going towards your goals no matter what adversity you face. – Hailey

* Joey’s story of how she chose to play D3 to be multi-sport and get a high-level education was powerful.  I loved her story of how she wrote a letter to herself in the third grade about wanting to be an Olympian and pro athlete one day and how she achieved those dreams.

*****

Sydney Supple

* Sydney was our host and interviewer and did an amazing job of asking the right questions and helping make all the speakers feel comfortable enough to share their wisdom and advice. – Hailey

*****

Both commenters had strong closing thoughts on this year’s successful event and goals for it to grow in the future.

“Overall, the event was a huge success,” Roach concludes, “and we could not have been happier with the outcome. The energy was amazing and being there in person was something I can’t put into words.”

“We are extremely excited for the upcoming years and the future success of this event!”

Roeder agrees and enthusiastically asks those in the sport to grow this popular event series.

“I’m challenging the softball community to help grow Empowering Girls for Life to be in more cities at different times a year,” she says with passion.

“We must change the way we do things when educating young women and their parents, and it is my desire to not just empower young women, but to give parents the support and real honest truth about how they can empower the young women in their lives!”

— Brentt Eads/Line Drive Softball