It's Rally for Girls Sports Day! What did I win by playing sports? So asks the National Women's Law Center.

Well, I didn’t win. I lost out by not getting to play much sports when I was a girl. I still got myself, but maybe not as good a version of Myself had I been sporty when I was a girl.

Title IX was shiny new back then, and I barely knew my Roman numerals.

No girls in my elementary or even junior high played on the soccer or basketball teams that so many of my daughters friends do today. Certainly not hockey teams! I don’t think they even existed.

We did play tennis however—with our families or among ourselves with low key scoring. I joined my high school team to impress colleges (unlikely considering I was 22 out of 22). Oh, and after an Olympic summer, my gang did gymnastics for fun at the Y. The only team sports I played were field hockey and volleyball in high school gym.

But I wish I had been on a soccer team like all the little girls are today.

Over the years that I’ve written for magazines such as Women Sports & Fitness (and to my parents’ dismay, Shape), and worked as a health editor at major women’s magazines, I’ve seen all the data about the positive effects of physical activity on girls. Each study made me a little more rueful, as I realized what psychological and social goodies I missed out on. Each report made me question my own personal and professional development. I wonder if my life would have been different, had I just bent it like Beckham a few times. I think of the sports not taken.

Would I have spared my stretched parents the pricey shrink bills during high school, had I enjoyed the benefits of higher self esteem and lower depression?

Maybe I could have been Summa Cum Laude like my grandfather-- The Doctor of Divinity with the Cambridge accent--would always ask me. Or at least Phi Beta Kapa --instead of just magna cum laude.

I could have avoided fainting on the tennis court that time, skipped my perverse flirtation with starving myself, since sporty girls get less body dissatisfaction and disordered eating. I don’t think my parents even noticed.

I could have been president—a boss to a lot more people than I have been, or a leader of women—and men, or at least an Editor-in-chief, as opposed to Senior Editor. A writer by trade, I’m not organizationally or savvy about group dynamics. What really gives me big time regrets is the reports about how team sports are a good place to learn the social and organizational structures.

The Women’s Sports Foundation states: “It is no accident that 80% of the female executives at Fortune 500 companies identified themselves as former "tomboys"—having played sports.” That organization has a report on the benefits of sport that makes me feel even worse about the things I would have learned—faking bravado, realizing you’re not good until you’ve practiced, getting used to making mistakes. It’s worth clicking to get the whole thing, especially if you were one of those so-called TomBoys.

I want my daughter to win with sports:  l hope she does a team sport to prepare her for the other aspects of the working world, that I didn't get trained for.

Maybe it’s not too late for me to win. I know a small business owner who just picked up ice hockey and she’s loving it. I wonder if it will change her business. If it does, then maybe I’ll try hockey too.