Rory Hodges loves Taylor Swift. In fact, the 7-year-old carries a portable speaker to blast pop star jams while she bikes around Lake Elmo, where her family lives.
Meanwhile, her father, Andrew, is the Chiefs fan who lives in the family. He grew up in Topeka, Kansas. “Being a Chiefs fan is like a religion,” he said.
But that news never reached her daughter, at least not until reports began to surface that Swift was dating tight end Travis Kelce. When the Chiefs appeared on TV, suddenly, instead of standing up, Rory was sitting and watching with her father. Andrew Hodges said he quickly became a student of the game, asking questions, learning the rules and badmouthing his friends' teams, just like his father.
“She started going to school, and the kids were talking about how good the Vikings were,” Andrew Hodges said. He repeated her answer, “They're not as good as the Chiefs,” imitating her daughter's voice.
Iowa basketball phenom Caitlin Clark's record-setting season has brought new excitement to women's track and field and given many sports-loving fathers new opportunities to connect with their daughters around a shared interest. And families like the Hodges show that inspiration for that kind of bond can just as easily come from pro football as it can from college basketball or Minnesota's first women's soccer team. Masu.
Earlier this season, as Clark set out to break a string of NCAA scoring records, local pediatric surgeon Asitha Jayawardena wrote Clark a letter thanking her for strengthening her bond with her daughter. . In response, the Star-Her Tribune asked readers to share their stories of father-daughter bonding through sports.
Andy Meinhardt of Bloomington said sports helped him bond with his daughters. He runs an amateur athletic union women's basketball club called the Minnesota Metro Stars and has raised his daughters with a focus on women's basketball. His oldest, Sophia, grew up watching University of Connecticut guard Paige Bueckers when she was a standout at Hopkins.
Bookers was Sophia's first hero. For three years, Sophia has been collecting newspaper clippings featuring Bueckers and pasting them on the walls of her room. Sophia's father is also her coach. He regularly pauses the matches we watch together to analyze what's happening on screen.
Andy Meinhardt said he often sits down and thinks about who he wants his daughters to look up to. The lack of controversy surrounding Bueckers makes her the frontrunner for the job. “It's a fun time being a father to a girl,” he said.
When the Minnesota Lynx won their first WNBA title, Abby Kaluza and her father would travel more than an hour from the St. Cloud area to watch the team play at Target Center. She was 10 years old at the time, and she remembers them stopping for fast food and listening to National Public Radio, which sparked conversations about current events. “Even though I was very young, I still thought the discussion was interesting,” Kaluza said.
Kaluza, the eldest of four children and now 23 and living in Washington, D.C., said he now understands that chasing lynx was something special and specific that he shared with his father. She still calls him once a week to talk about politics and current events.
Last season, as the Chiefs were on their way to winning the Super Bowl, Andrew Hodges said he found himself canceling game plans with friends so he could watch the game with his daughter. After each of her games, he kept her awake past her normal bedtime. He imitated her daughter's voice again and remembered a very meaningful remark that her daughter had said. “Dad, I really like watching soccer with you.''
Alex Karwowski is a student reporter at the University of Minnesota and is assigned to the Star Tribune.
