Females Coaching Females- Part 2- Why Did You Choose To Coach?

I have asked eight female coaches about their experiences coaching and their perspective on females coaching females. Five of the women have been successful head basketball coaches, and three have been assistant coaches. One coach will be starting her 27th season as head coach, while another will be starting her first year as head coach. Three of the women are retired from coaching going into this season. Two of the coaches have won State championships. 

I really appreciate these coaches taking the time to answer my questions. They are eight coaches that I have tremendous respect for!!

WHY DID YOU CHOOSE TO COACH? AND HOW DID PEOPLE REACT TO YOU AS A FEMALE COACH?

Nicole Brinker- Eastland Girls Basketball Coach. Niocle has been been head coach for 8 seasons. Her teams took 2nd in State in 2019 and 1st in State in 2020.

Question- Why did you decide to go into coaching? I loved the sport and love kids.  I also had many great role models throughout my life that instilled the love of the game that I wanted to share with others.  

Question- Who were the coaches who inspired you?  Did you have any female coaches? Colleen Finn-Henze: She started coaching varsity at Eastland my freshman year.  She was and still is driven, selfless, motivating, KNOWLEDGEABLE, caring and amazing person.  Jane Martz: She was my coach in junior high and then coached at the FS level when I got to high school.  She has a knack for reaching and relating to kids that have a hard shell or have had some tough life experiences. Jan Bowers (my coach at UIS).  She knows so much about the game of basketball and could make changes on the fly so quickly by what she saw was happening. 

Question- Do you feel that as a female coach, you were treated differently by parents of players?  I actually have coached boys and girls in basketball and in softball/baseball and I would say no.  

Did you feel you were treated differently by male coaches? Not by all, but definitely by some.  

Did you feel you were treated differently by refs?  As a new coach....yes.  Since I have built a reputation in the area and know most of the refs...overall no.  However, when we go somewhere new that we don't usually play, then yes.  I get ignored while male coaches seem to be able to say whatever they want. 

Kimberly Barth- Washington Girls Basketball Coach. She will be entering her 8th season as head varsity coach. Her teams have won numerous Regional Championships and are consistently ranked in the top ten in 3A. 

Why did you decide to go into coaching? I have loved sports my entire life.  My dad was my coach growing up and him and a few others influenced me to go into coaching and teaching.  His love for the game resonated with me and I knew I wanted to follow in his footsteps.  I also love working with kids, so this is an opportunity to help teach life lessons to kids on the court.

Who were the coaches who inspired you? Did you have any female coaches? My father, Chris Holdenrid.  Mike Kilmartin (varsity basketball coach), Mike McKeague (asst coach), Sandy Schuster/Karen Sweitzer (college coaches)-females.

Do you feel that as a female coach, you were treated differently by parents of players?  No I do not feel like parents treat me differently.  I have a parent meeting at the beginning of the year where I share expectations of our program.

Did you feel you were treated differently by male coaches? No I feel respected by most coaches.

Did you feel you were treated differently by refs? I think occasionally I have been treated differently by officials.  I feel like I have witnessed male coaches yelling at officials have a longer leash, than a female questioning a call.  Maybe I'm wrong, but I have felt it at times.

Debbie Coffman- Bloomington Central Catholic Girls Basketball Coach. Debbie will be entering her 28th season as varsity head coach. Her teams have won 20+ games 21 times, they have won 16 Regional titles, finished 3rd in State once, 2nd in State twice, and were State Champs in 2010. She is the past President of the IBCA. 

Why did you decide to go into coaching?  I wanted to give back to young girls.   My high school and college coaches made a huge contribution and mentored me not just on the game with x's and o's but preparing me for life.    I wanted to be able to do that as well.    I loved basketball, loved playing and wanted to be around it so coaching was the next step. 

Who were the coaches who inspired you? Did you have any female coaches?  My high school and college coaches.   My high school coach was a male and my college coaches were all female. 

Do you feel that as a female coach, you were treated differently by parents of players?  At times yes.    I feel players sometimes would try to take advantage of me being a woman and trying to find the softer side.  

Did you feel you were treated differently by male coaches?  No

Did you feel you were treated differently by refs?  Yes many times.   To watch male refs talk to male coaches and talk differently (when they did) to me.    I feel my female assistants were treated different as well. 

Maggie Molek- Retired as Ridgewood Girls Basketball Coach. Maggie just retired this Spring after a successful four year run as the varsity head coach. 

Why did you decide to go into coaching?- I really did not plan on getting into coaching basketball but a position was open when I started teaching and I thought this would be a good way to make connections with students especially as a new teacher in the building. 

Who were the coaches who inspired you? Did you have any female coaches?  I was lucky enough to have met Lisa Bluder when she was at St. Ambrose coaching at the same time that my Dad was the head football coach. When she became the head coach at Iowa I was always impressed with her teams and the culture, even when they were not having the success they have today. I was also personally inspired by my own high school track coach who took time out of his day to check in with his athletes on a personal level, even visiting me at my house after I got hurt in a basketball game to make sure I was doing ok.  I did not have very many female coaches in high school or in college track. My sophomore basketball coach was a female and I had one or two female track coaches who were assistants. 

Do you feel that as a female coach, you were treated differently by parents of players? Did you feel you were treated differently by male coaches? Did you feel you were treated differently by refs?  I got my first head coaching when I was 24 or 25 years old in the 2012-2013. I feel like in the beginning being young and female I was treated very differently. I had parents who thought they could bully me into playing their daughters more and they would call and  complain when I would yell at girls at practice or in games, where I saw male coaches doing the same thing and their actions were seen as acceptable. I feel like refs did not take what I was saying  seriously and their responses would usually be framed in a way making it clear they did not think I knew what I was talking about.  When it came to other coaches I also felt that I was not taken very seriously. I had girls who I felt should have had more all conference votes who were looked over and votes were given to players on other teams who did not have the same stats. 

I will however say I feel like over the past 10 years that has changed a lot. It could be switching to Illinois or the LTC conference, but over the past four seasons I have felt very much respected by parents, the other coaches in the conference and by referees. Obviously not every day is perfect but I feel like that is true for all coaches both male and female. So I think progress is being made and I hope other female coaches have the same positive experience moving forward.

Andie Leibach- Andie is presently retired from coaching. Andie was a successful and valuable junior high coach and varsity assistant coach in Galesburg for almost ten years. 

Why did you decide to go into coaching?  I love the game of basketball, I love competition, and I love being on a team. After playing through college, I was just not ready to step away from the game, and since I had been helping with the GHS program each summer and very much enjoyed it, it felt natural to continue coaching as I began my teaching career as well. I wanted to help young women have the same positive experiences that I had as a player.  

Who were the coaches who inspired you? Did you have any female coaches?   I was inspired by all three of my high school coaches - Coach Massey, Coach Rux, and Coach Barshinger as well as my 8th grade female coach, Michelle Wynne. She was an amazing lower level coach. She felt it was her duty to prepare us for the high school program, and I honestly cannot imagine anyone doing it better. She was a wonderful coach and I was inspired by her greatly as a woman, a mom, and a coach in general. I even got to start my own coaching career alongside Michelle on the junior high level, which meant a great deal to me! I had two different coaches during college, both female, which was common among many of our opponents as well.

Do you feel that as a female coach, you were treated differently by parents of players?   I'm not sure I was ever treated differently, but I saw it happen to someone else first hand. There was a threatening parent yelling at a colleague within the first quarter of the first junior high game of the season when her daughter was not immediately put into the game. I truly don't think the incident would have been the same if the coach was anyone but a young female.   

Did you feel you were treated differently by male coaches?   No.

Did you feel you were treated differently by refs?  Again, this is one that I didn't experience much personally (especially being an assistant coach for most of my coaching days), but I have definitely seen a difference. For whatever reason, it seems like female coaches can often have a "shorter leash" of sorts when it comes to speaking out against refs during games.  

Taylor Jackson- Sterling Girls Basketball Coach. Taylor will be starting her 7th season as girls varsity basketball coach after having been one of the all-time greatest players at Sterling. 

Why did you decide to go into coaching?  I appreciated the relationship I had with my coaches growing up.  I knew in high school that I wanted to go into education and also join the coaching world. The relationship between player and coach is so valuable and I was so lucky to have been coached by some amazing, relationship driven coaches. 

Who were the coaches who inspired you? Did you have any female coaches?  In high school I had the opportunity to play for Bruce Schiedegger.  He always expected a lot out of his athletes, held everyone to extremely high standards and challenged us to be our best in all things we did.  I appreciated the relationships that he created with the players and amongst the team that encouraged girls to play as hard as they could for him.  Also, Paul Hess was my high school track coach and he was another coach that balanced high standards with great relationships with his athletes and girls were very committed to his program and to work as hard as they possibly could to achieve big goals under his coaching.  I hardly had any female coaches growing up.  

Do you feel that as a female coach, you were treated differently by parents of players?  I feel I have been supported by the parents of our players.  They have always been willing to step in and help in any way that can and that makes our program better when we have families that are willing to do that.  

Did you feel you were treated differently by male coaches?  I cannot emphasize how supported I felt from the male coaches, specifically in the Western Big 6.  Men who I admire tremendously in the coaching profession have always been extremely supportive of me as a female coach.  

Did you feel you were treated differently by refs?   When I first began my coaching career, I had several situations where the refs would come to the bench and walk right past me to shake hands with one of our male assistants.  This caught me by surprise a few times but as I have coached longer it rarely happens anymore.  

Michelle Wynne- Presently retired from coaching after having been Head Coach at Knoxville, JH coach in Galesburg, Freshman coach in Galesburg, and JH boys coach at United. 

Why did you go into coaching? I went into coaching primarily because it was an opportunity given to me when I started teaching. I had played basketball at Knox College and had always had a love of sports but didn't necessarily plan on coaching when I started my career.

Who were some of the coaches who inspired you?  I had a number of different coaches throughout my years involved in athletics and yet only one was a woman.  Coach Harley Knosher was the athletic director when I was at Knox, and his approach to athletics did inspire me to get into coaching. Harley was always enthusiastic and treated the team as a family. I quickly knew when I started coaching that I wanted every player on the team to feel like they were an integral part of the family.

Did you feel you were treated differently as a female coach?  While at United Junior High, I coached 8th grade boys' basketball.  I had coached my son and his classmates for years in a travel league and was then asked by the varsity coach to coach their school team. Many officials and coaches spent the pre-game talking hoops to the 7th grade coach who was a man. I can remember often standing by myself as the teams warmed up. Our team finished that season at 19-2 and lost the regional championship by one point. Although we were successful and usually beat our opponents easily, I did not always feel respected because I was a woman coaching a boys' team. In my opinion, it does not matter if a good coach is a woman or a man. We need to look at coaches as ones who know the sport and can teach it, not whether they coach the game differently based on their gender. 

Definitely some male coaches treated me differently, but there were also many who did not.  I especially noticed that during my first time coaching against some male coaches they occasionally spoke down to me acting like I didn't know what I was doing. I had to earn their respect.

When I was coaching junior high boys, I often received comments like, "Where's the coach?"  I had an opposing coach say to me once in the pre-game meeting, "You are the prettiest coach I've ever coached against."  When the game was over and we beat them by 30, he shook my hand and said, "You are still the prettiest coach, but you're a damn good one." I think that women coaches have to work harder to earn the respect of their male counterparts.

Lexi Demott- Lexi has been varsity assistant coach at Galesburg the last four years, and will be the varsity head coach this coming year. 

Why did you decide to go into coaching? I decided to go into coaching because I enjoyed being a part of a team when I no longer was able to play. I also enjoyed being able to help young athletes take the game of basketball to develop life skills that they will utilize forever. 

What coaches have inspired you?  The coach that inspired me the most was Coach Massey. The way he was able to connect with every player, make every player feel they were worthy, and the way he was able to incorporate life into basketball it wasn't always just the X's and O'x of the game. Yes, I had two female coaches when I played. Andie Leibach (Allison) and Jessica Howard. 

Have you felt you were treated differently by parents or players?  As a first year female head coach I have not had any encounters like this at the time. As the assistant coach, no I never felt that I was treated differently. 

Have you felt treated differently by other coaches?  Absolutely not. I have only had conversations within our staff, so I cannot say from other coaches yet. I do know that within our staff my opinion and thought was just as valued as the male coaches. 

Have you felt treated differently by referees?  No. I have only been a female assistant until this upcoming season. I will say I did have issues staying seated and I did get in trouble a couple times for that, but it had nothing to do with me being a female. 

Up Next- Why do we want and need more female coaches?