This is the first of several blog posts looking at female coaches coaching female basketball teams. This post is my perspective on the history in Illinois high school basketball, and also looking at some stats on the females coaching.
HISTORY OF FEMALES COACHING GIRLS BASKETBALL IN ILLINOIS
My sense is that in Illinois, coaching girls basketball has gone thru four phases. Obviously not every school was the same, but in general this is what I feel happened.
Phase 1- "If we have to have girls sports, find someone to fill it." Initially often women PE teachers were asked or told to coach the basketball teams (and all the sports). Some of these women may not have had the opportunity to have played the sport before, but they were excited for females to have the opportunity.
Phase 2- "Let's get someone who won't make waves." By the late 1970's and early 1980's, many of the female coaches began to get frustrated by the inequity of pay for coaching girls sports vs boys sports, and inequity in equipment and facilities. Some female coaches quit out of frustration. Other female coaches asked, begged, or even demanded that administrators create equity for girls sports. Administrators were not close to ready for this and did not want to deal with this push for equity. The solution was to encourage or force female coaches to quit. At this point, administrators turned to males who coached other sports. It was popular to get a football coach to coach girls basketball. The football coach would not protest about inequity in girls sports, and it was a great way to pad the football coach's income. So during this phase, males who may or may not have had a basketball background were hired to coach girls basketball as a way to squelch the push for gender equity.
Phase 3- "We need to at least be competitive." By the 1980's, the IHSA girls state basketball tourney was firmly established, and most of the conferences in Illinois had set up a round robin schedule to determine a conference champion. Winning became much more important to parents and administrators. The golf coach or the track coach, who had never played basketball was pushed out the door. AD's turned to boys basketball assistants who were not on track to ever become a varsity boys head coach. The quality of coaches went up, because now the males taking jobs actually had a basketball background.
Phase 4- "Hey, she knows basketball." By the 1990's there were females who had grown up going to basketball camps as youngsters, played high school and played college basketball. They knew basketball and wanted to continue their involvement with basketball as coaches. Some administrators began to prefer females coaching girls basketball.
STATS ON FEMALES COACHING GIRLS BASKETBALL
Things have changed over time. Where are we right now? Using the IHSA website, I tried to determine the number of females coaching girls basketball in 6 downstate, large school conferences-the Western Big Six (mainly the QC's), the Big 12 (Peoria/Normal), Mid-Illinois (outside Peoria), NIC-10 (Rockford), Appolo (Eastern Ill), and Central State 8 (Springfield). I looked at 2023-4 season.
Total Number of Girls Basketball Head Coaching Positions- 57
Total Number of Females in Head Coaching Positions- 12
Percentage of females in Head Coaching Positions- 21%
BIG TEN Conference- Female Head Coaches in Womens Basketball
Total Number of Head Coach Positions- 14
Total Number of Female Head Coaches- 12
Percentage of females in Head Coaching Positions- 86%
WHATS NEXT
While I have coached girls basketball for several decades, as a male I don't have the same perspective that female coaches may have. Over the last month, I have tried to get the thoughts of 7 females who have coached girls basketball. My next blog, I will introduce you to the coaches and look at their backgrounds.
Looking forward to this series!
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