MIAA girls and women in sports day

The time is now for women’s sports.

Rachel Duranwood, who played soccer for the Boston Breakers, echoed that message to an audience of female high school athletes, coaches, and administrators as the MIAA celebrated Girls and Women in Sports Day Tuesday morning at Faneuil Hall.

“It’s incredible the work that is taking place, and you all are just at the beginning of it,” said Duranwood, current soccer engagement lead for Boston Legacy FC.

Duranwood won a pair of NCAA Division 1 soccer titles at North Carolina before playing professionally in Iceland and then in the NWSL. As the keynote speaker, she was on point: women’s sports are no longer a distant, inaccessible dream, but a real professional opportunity.

However, if you ask Duranwood where her fondest memories were, it was not playing professionally.

“It goes back to where you are right now,” she said. “We knew each other on the field, but we knew each other off the field as well, and that is one of the greatest gifts of high school sports. You learn how to compete, yes, but you also learn how to belong.”

Duranwood implored the athletes to hold on to the lessons learned from sports and carry them through their lives, regardless of whether they continue to play.

“The power of sport is not limited to the people who play at the next level. The game has already done its work in every single one of you,” she said.

Three women were honored with distinguished service awards: Patricia Rivero Gonzalez, recently retired athletic director at Newton South, Karen Guillemette, AD at Monomoy; and Laura Whittaker, teacher, varsity softball coach, and junior varsity field hockey coach at Stoughton.

Bishop Feehan’s Grace McGahan proudly scans her track and cross-country award while leaving the stage at the MIAA’s Girls and Women in Sports Day at Faneuil Hall.David L. Ryan/Globe Staff

Following the presentation of the awards by West Bridgewater AD Jennifer Hammel, Mary Lou Thimas — who’s served as a field hockey and girls lacrosse official since 1965 and was recently inducted into the National Federation of State High Schools Hall of Fame — was celebrated.

Afterward, 250 female student-athletes were honored and presented with certificates.

“You know how to lose and still shake hands and you know how to win and shift credit,” said Duranwood, who founded Summit Soccer.

“You all know how to be a part of something bigger than yourselves. So, as you graduate my challenge to you is simple: do not leave your athlete self behind. Bring her with you.”