SHEWINS

Kristy Flores is the Founder of SHEWINS – a women’s empowerment and development program that builds confidence and capability in young women through a shared love of basketball.

Kristy chased her basketball dream from Newcastle, all the way to the Australia’s WNBL, the Australian Institute of Sport and the USA’s NCAA Collegiate system. With over a decade of professional experience in the US under her belt, she returned home to Australia in 2009, admitting it was quite a culture shock.

“My experience of women’s sport in the US was of an industry that valued and heavily invested in women at every level of the sport. Coming home to Australia after so many years as a professional coach felt like stepping back in time. It was a shock,” says Kristy.

With participation in women’s basketball at around 25% of men’s, and lower still among sports administrators, coaches, and referees, she knew there was a huge opportunity to increase female participation.

“I felt very strongly that we, as a sport, weren’t prioritising girls and their needs. We seemed to be struggling to connect, engage and retain girls and women in our sport,” says Kristy.

Combining her passion for her sport with an undergraduate degree in Psychology, Kristy had always been fascinated by the interplay of sport and confidence, particularly for young girls.

“Sport is one of the rare spaces where girls are encouraged to be assertive and find their voice. It’s a unique platform that connects psychological, social, emotional and physical elements together in a golden opportunity,” says Kristy.

The idea of SHEWINS, a program leveraging basketball as a platform to build esteem and foster resilience and wellbeing in young women, crystallised for Kristy in 2017, when the first young women asked for her help.

“I tested the concept with a small test size of about five families who were regularly asking for my help and it has quickly grown to about 80 girls across the Hunter just through word of mouth,” says Kristy.

“The girls, and sometimes their parents, come to me for help because they don’t feel strong or confident. I group them by similar age, ability, maturation, so they are in a challenging but safe environment. I know it’s working when I can start to see their demeanour change not just on the court, but in other areas of their lives as well.”

Parents of young women in the program have noticed positive changes in their daughters as they grow in confidence, with one participant’s mother sharing ‘Thanks so much. My daughter loved today. She was beaming. She said to me on the car ride home “Mum, I feel so much braver and stronger every time’.

After a stellar career at the top of her game, Kristy explains that she is now in the business of developing ‘elite people’.

“Performance is my background, and while it’s incredible to look at kids I coached ten years ago and see that many of them are now playing in the WNBL and several of them have become Olympians, I’m equally excited to see young women becoming excellent people in whatever they’re going to do in life. I want to help unlock all the amazing potential we have in the young women in our region,” Kristy says.

So, what happens when the coach wants coaching?

Kristy admits that without the Female Founders Program she’d likely still be ‘sitting on the fence with one foot in and one foot out.’

“I’ve never doubted the need for and value of the work I do, but I’ve highly doubted if anyone else would care about it, want to support or endorse it, let alone pay for it.”

Through the Female Founders Program Kristy has learnt how to build a sustainable business model, access sponsorship and grants to support the expansion of her program and create additional layers to build revenue. With a strong accounting background, her mentor helped her build capacity in areas she felt very uncomfortable with.

“I had a blueprint for my idea that was riddled with gigantic holes. Through the Female Founders Program I now know where those holes are, how big they are and how to go about fixing them or where to go to find people to help fix them,” says Kristy.

According to Kristy, one of the best things about the program was the validation that her idea is valuable and ‘totally possible’.

“It’s been a really empowering platform to test my ideas, make game-changing connections and be inspired by a group of very impressive women who are navigating similar experiences and thought processes, such as self-doubt,” says Kristy.

With SHEWINS already at near-capacity due to court availability in the region, Kristy is navigating how to scale her program to be able to help more young women and ultimately, open her own facility.

“I dream of our own facility, with two courts, 6-8 baskets, a study space, a kitchen and a chill-out room. It’s a special space where the girls can come to work on being their best selves. I can’t wait, I can already see what it looks like. I Just need to find the right space and some cash to pay for it.”

You can contact Kristy via the SHEWINS website www.shewins.com.au