{"id":435665,"date":"2026-08-17T22:58:22","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T22:58:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/435665\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T22:58:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T22:58:22","slug":"womens-bay-area-sports-take-center-stage-at-49ers-football-for-all-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/435665\/","title":{"rendered":"Women\u2019s Bay Area Sports Take Center Stage at 49ers ‘Football for All’ Game"},"content":{"rendered":"

Growing the Game in the Bay Area<\/p>\n

Malonson has had a front-row seat to that growth since joining Bay FC for the club’s inaugural season in 2024.<\/p>\n

“It’s honestly amazing to watch,” Malonson said. “Obviously, when I was first growing up, women’s sports really wasn’t that big. So just seeing how much it has grown since me being here, it’s been incredible.”<\/p>\n

For Haggerty, the expansion of women’s sports in Northern California has created an opportunity to continue her career in the same area where it began.<\/p>\n

The Lafayette native grew up playing volleyball in the Bay Area at\u00a0Carondelet High School<\/a>\u00a0before continuing her career at Boston College and later playing professionally in France. Now, she’ll return home as a member of the Signal for its inaugural season.<\/p>\n

“Selfishly, I’m so excited to be back in my hometown, so that’s something I’m really looking forward to,” Haggerty said. “LOVB has done such a great job. I’m just excited that we finally, the Bay Area, have a team to support.”<\/p>\n

Haggerty has also watched the momentum reach the youth level.<\/p>\n

“Volleyball is such a fast-growing sport, especially for young girls,” Haggerty said. “Going back to my old club and seeing how big it’s become, it’s incredible.”<\/p>\n

Yarbrough recently joined the Bay Area sports community,\u00a0signing with the Golden State Storm<\/a> ahead of the 2027 season. The four-time WNFC champion and former league MVP is returning to football following a break and has already taken notice of the community.<\/p>\n

“Just being a part of the team for the last week, it is different,” Yarbrough said. “They’re accepting. It is a true community of women that are trying to push something for the better.”<\/p>\n

Inspiring the Next Generation<\/p>\n

As the number of women’s professional teams in the Bay Area grows, so does the opportunity for young athletes to see women competing at the highest levels in their own backyard.<\/p>\n

For Haggerty, that’s one of the biggest differences between the experience she had growing up and the one young volleyball players can have today.<\/p>\n

“When I was growing up, I never even dreamed I could be a professional athlete because it wasn’t really around us that much,” Haggerty said. “I really hope that they can see us as an inspiration for what they could do one day too.”<\/p>\n

Malonson shared a similar perspective when reflecting on young athletes having more opportunities to watch women play pro.<\/p>\n

“When I was growing up, I just did it because I loved it and I just enjoyed it,” Malonson said. “I hope they take advantage, come to games, and just enjoy it.”<\/p>\n

For Yarbrough, she hopes the next generation also finds mentorship and confidence through sports.<\/p>\n

“I hope any young girl that joins a team finds a mentor and believes in themselves,” Yarbrough said. “Confidence is the key… Believe in yourself, find a mentor, have confidence, and just don’t ever stop.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Growing the Game in the Bay Area Malonson has had a front-row seat to that growth since joining…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":435666,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[172961,51513,809,810,4306,808,25438,100,101,103,102,104,106,105,171157,172960],"class_list":["post-435665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-2026-levis-stadium","tag-brooke-evans","tag-english","tag-english-articles","tag-featured-news","tag-latest-app","tag-levis-stadium","tag-news","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news","tag-tennessee-titans-at-san-francisco-49ers-2026-pre-1","tag-verified-faithful"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}