My best friend from high school is a Elementary school PE teacher. Going through college in PE was an eye-opening experience for her. Mostly masculine females in that major! She's happily married for 30+ years herself.
My father was a high school champion athlete who had 5 daughters and no sons, so he encouraged any of his daughters who had any athletic ability to pursue it (it was the best he could do given what he had to work with, and baby sister had plenty - came within a hair's breadth of being state champ).
She came to the same realization your friend did, too bad.