Female Coaches in Sports
Female Coaches in Sports
Brock Kichline
QNews
For the longest time women struggled to find jobs within the world of sports outside of just playing, in recent years that has started to change and women are thriving in what used to be a largely male-dominated world.
Ever since 1972 when Title IX was passed, the number of female coaches in collegiate sports has decreased from 90% to 42% today, according to theconversation.com. Title IX was passed to make sure that there was not discrimination based on someone's sex.
This has opened up the opportunity for men to coach women's teams which they did not have the opportunity before, the problem with this is schools have focused on hiring them more than women.
History of Female Coaches
It wasn't until the early 1970's did women's sports start to gain attention in the United States, in large part due to Title IX, but this was only at the collegiate level. There was not a professional women's league until 1978, known as the Women's Pro Basketball League, it only lasted three seasons and disbanded in 1981.
The first woman that was hired to be a coach and found success was Patricia (Pat) Summitt, she was hired by the University of Tennessee in 1974 to be the head coach of the women's basketball team. Summitt saw immediate success while at the helm of her new program, but the one thing she did not have to her name was a championship.
Schools from around the nation started to see that women can succeed in head coaching positions just as much as men, this led to more barriers being broken. Just a few years later in 1999, Carolyn Peck became the first African-American female coach to win a national championship.
Due to the success of female coaches in college sports, men's professional teams started to take notice and in 2009 Nancy Lieberman became the first woman hired to be the head coach of a men's pro team.
Not long after did more women start to see opportunities to become coaches in professional leagues. Becky Hammon, arguably the most popular female coach, was hired by the San Antonio Spurs of the NBA to be the first full-time assistant coach.
Over the past decade, women have started to be interviewed for many coaching positions and female coaches can now be found throughout every major professional sports league.
HPU Sports Taking Off
In recent years High Point University has seen tremendous success with their sports teams, most notably being the women's basketball team and women's lacrosse team. The success of the two teams can be traced back to the coaches, Chelsea Banbury and Lyndsey Boswell.
Banbury was hired by the university to be the new head coach of the women's basketball team in 2019 and has gotten off to an incredible start. Her first season in charge of the program was cut short due to COVID-19, but in just her second season she took the Panthers to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history.
Originally a player on the Florida Gulf Coast University basketball team, Banbury then transitioned to being an assistant coach with the school. She helped FGCU become one of the best 3-point shooting teams in the nation, which is something she has brought with her to HPU.
Although she originally found it to be tough being on the sideline instead of the court, she began to learn how to become a great coach, "From the coaching standpoint, when you first get into it you start feeling sorry for yourself that you don't get to play anymore," said, Banbury. "So you start to learn to figure out how you can help the players on the floor and help them become better basketball players."
The year following the team making it to March Madness, Banbury led them to arguably their most impressive season. After losing Skylar Curran, the Big South MVP, to an ACL injury in the first game they went on to be the #4 team in the Big South.
The team at HPU that has arguably seen the most success is one of its newest, the women's lacrosse team was created in 2009 and has the most NCAA tournament appearances out of all the teams.
Lyndsey Boswell has been the head coach since the inception of the program, she has brought in highly talented and knowledgable assistant coaches. One of the more recent additions to the coaching staff is Kelly McQuilkin, she was brought on in 2017 after being a defender on the lacrosse team at Towson University and interestingly enough played her last game against High Point.
McQuilkin has quickly made a massive impact for the HPU lacrosse team, helping to produce the Big South Defender of the Year three straight years. While also notching big wins over Duke, Johns Hopkins, and Notre Dame. The win over Duke is considered the most impressive in program history as Duke was led by Charlotte North, who would become an eventual national champion at Boston College and Tewaaraton award winner (The Tewaaraton award is given to the best lacrosse player in the nation).
One of her favorite things that comes with coaching is watching the players learn and grow, "Every single day you get to wear a lot of different hats, but once that light bulb goes off in the girl's head, it's one of the most exciting moments."
The HPU lacrosse team has made six appearances in the NCAA Tournament: '13, '14, '17, '18, '19, '21, the three most recent of those appearances coming under McQuilkin, as well as being ranked nationally in the shortened 2020 season.
Importance of Female Coaches
Within the world of sports women have had to overcome a lot to get to where they are today and they know that there is more pressure put on them to succeed.
One of the responsibilities that a coach has is to help these athletes become successful in a world outside of just sports, "You can be in a leadership spot and you can be good at your job," said Banbury. "But you can still have your family time, so don't limit yourself."
In past years female coaches have found it difficult to be a mom and a coach, mostly because of how time consuming both can be. Recently, more and more women have shown that this is not a massive issue and have been able to succeed as a coach, while also being a good mother.
As coaches, women bring a lot to the table that men do not, "Things I have learned from my female coaches is the importance of building positive relationships, communication, dedication," said Mikaela Chin, a student on the HPU club field hockey team. "As well as the importance of working hard to prove self-worth and avoid being undermined."
More importantly, women are finally being given a chance to prove themselves in the world of sports, they have shown they can do equally as well, if not better than male coaches. Finally they have been given the opportunity to show what they can do and have no plan on stopping.
Related Links:
Comments
Post a Comment