Report Card: Percent Women's Coaches of Women's Teams

[cabbie191]

Found this link on this report done by the University of Minnesota on the percentage of women's coaches of women's teams at 76 FBS colleges. Found this on the Cincinnati Bearcat website - not surprising perhaps that they listed this since they were the top school.

http://www.cehd.umn.edu/tuckercente...rd_Status-of-Women-College-Coaches_Dec-18.pdf

 

[Phil]

On the one hand, I understand the viewpoint. It is virtually impossible (which exceptions are rare enough that they can probably be listed on fingers of one hand) for women to get coaching jobs of male teams, yet when it comes to coaching women, the percentage of men is increasing.

On the other hand, if a school surveys the available talent, and chooses men, I think labelling that as a failing grade is not right. It may highlight a problem needing addressing, but it is unfair to give an F to a school who may have hired the best available talent.

 

[cabbie191]

On the one hand, I understand the viewpoint. It is virtually impossible (which exceptions are rare enough that they can probably be listed on fingers of one hand) for women to get coaching jobs of male teams, yet when it comes to coaching women, the percentage of men is increasing.

On the other hand, if a school surveys the available talent, and chooses men, I think labelling that as a failing grade is not right. It may highlight a problem needing addressing, but it is unfair to give an F to a school who may have hired the best available talent.

I agree. Schools are criticized for not giving women's athletics the same level of support, especially financially, as they do for the men's side. So if they hire a male coach because that's the best person for the job, they ought not to be criticized for that as well. (Though I suspect they would be different voices doing the criticizing!)

And hoping this doesn't set off another can of worms, I wonder if our Lady Vol posters have anything to say in this regard, given UT's merging of the separate men's and women's athletic departments. I only saw the ruckus through its apparent impact on the Orange basketball program (I'm talking staffing here, not talking about coaching ability or the team's performance on the court) but I wonder if it has gone beyond that.

 

[Wbbfan1]

Wonder if Lady Vol fans would give the AD a failing grade if they Hired Pat's Son when Holly is ready to move on?

I agree. Schools are criticized for not giving women's athletics the same level of support, especially financially, as they do for the men's side. So if they hire a male coach because that's the best person for the job, they ought not to be criticized for that as well. (Though I suspect they would be different voices doing the criticizing!)

And hoping this doesn't set off another can of worms, I wonder if our Lady Vol posters have anything to say in this regard, given UT's merging of the separate men's and women's athletic departments. I only saw the ruckus through its apparent impact on the Orange basketball program (I'm talking staffing here, not talking about coaching ability or the team's performance on the court) but I wonder if it has gone beyond that.

 

[intlzncster]

Have to go with best available candidate. Or you are hurting your program. If UCONN had gone strictly gender, we'd have been out one Geno.

 

[UcMiami]

Cabbie - really good point - it wasn't that long ago that a lot of women's HCs were getting paid less than a lot of men's assistants. So the plus side is you get much more money going into the women's programs, the down side that the money has attracted more men who can see it as a career goal and not a stop-gap until they can get a men's job. I suspect most ADs still would hire the woman over the man for a women's team if the resumes were identical (and I think that is fine) but the more competition there is for the coaching jobs the better for women's sports.

 

[UcMiami]

On further reflection - it would also be interesting to see the 'traditional men's sports' that women are playing dropped out of the equation - ice hockey is a fairly recent addition to many women's athletic programs, so you would expect most of the coaches to still be men. Soccer, a bit longer but still fairly recent, basketball - been around for a very long time so more likely to have a much higher number of former players who have risen through the sport.

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

Yes, if you read the detail linked, there are certain sports that are highly male dominated, including ice hockey, bowling, sailing, etc., as well as soccer and volleyball. OTH, all the Field Hockey head coaches are female. Women's basketball was in the upper half of sports.

I think the declining percentage of women particularly in WBB is probably of greater concern than that - as UcMiami suggests - a female coaching pool has yet to be developed in some sports.

 

[hjoerring]

While uconn is not as high as I would like, I must give them/Geno credit for making a conscious decision to carry women assistants. I believe that he is of the opinion, as I am, that sometime you may have to 'discriminate' in order to create a pool of well trained assistance who can move into coaching heads.Of course if women are blocked from coaching men (and that is a cultural-gender thing) while the latter is free to move across gender we will never have a level playing field (there will always be a surplus of men over women for wbb, with the probability that more men may be 'more qualify').

 

[UcMiami]

While uconn is not as high as I would like, I must give them/Geno credit for making a conscious decision to carry women assistants. I believe that he is of the opinion, as I am, that sometime you may have to 'discriminate' in order to create a pool of well trained assistance who can move into coaching heads.Of course if women are blocked from coaching men (and that is a cultural-gender thing) while the latter is free to move across gender we will never have a level playing field (there will always be a surplus of men over women for wbb, with the probability that more men may be 'more qualify').

I actually think it mostly has to do with balance for Geno and for most male coaches and many female coaches as well. Having at least one man and one woman on the coaching team allows for the variety of players to interact with the coaches in a gender rounded way. I think it is actually something that men's team coaches miss the boat on as they mostly only employee male assistants. Players, especially young ones, can be motivated by a whole range of psychologies and some of them are specific to gender.

 

[cabbie191]

While uconn is not as high as I would like, I must give them/Geno credit for making a conscious decision to carry women assistants. I believe that he is of the opinion, as I am, that sometime you may have to 'discriminate' in order to create a pool of well trained assistance who can move into coaching heads.Of course if women are blocked from coaching men (and that is a cultural-gender thing) while the latter is free to move across gender we will never have a level playing field (there will always be a surplus of men over women for wbb, with the probability that more men may be 'more qualify').

On a related note, I wonder to what extent having the nascent emergence of women referees in major men's sports will help change the culture? Woman referee in the NBA, two women officials in one of the bowl games, etc.

 

[JSB60]

I'm just as happy to stay on the politically incorrect side and keep Geno!