England's top women's league is taking its players into classrooms. WSL Football and Nike announced Breaking Lines on Thursday, a six-week school program that mixes lessons with time on the pitch and is aimed at bringing more young people, especially girls, into the game, per the WSL Football announcement.

Where Breaking Lines Runs

The first round reaches about 1,600 students in Years 8 and 9 across 69 schools: 46 in London, 13 in the Northwest and 10 in the West Midlands. The charity Football Beyond Borders, which uses the sport to keep young people engaged in school, delivers it. The program closes with a public celebration of the students' work.

Eight Barclays WSL Players Anchor the Lessons

Each week takes on a theme: identity, self-expression, belonging, managing pressure and overcoming setbacks. The stories behind them come from eight WSL players: Bunny Shaw, Lauren Hemp, Lotte Wubben-Moy, Fran Kirby, Kosovare Asllani, Mariona Caldentey, Wieke Kaptein and Lenna Gunning-Williams. The on-pitch drills are built around those players' own skills.

Nike is WSL Football's official technical partner, and the program grew out of that expanded deal, the Youth Sports Business Report noted. Nike's general manager for the future of youth sport, Dan Burrows, described the goal as youth sport that is "accessible, inclusive and fun."

Neither partner has said whether year two will add regions. For U.S. programs, the model is worth watching: a pro league putting its own athletes' stories into a school curriculum, delivered by a charity that already works in those schools. More soccer coverage is on the BallerTube soccer page.