My first basketball coaching position was in 1974. My senior year at Knox College, I was "hired" to coach the first Knox women's basketball team. I was a player on the men's team, and received $2.65 per hour, the same as my other campus jobs. I was hired because my coach was confident in me, and he thought it would be good on my resume.
At Galesburg HS, I started out as boys cross country coach, boys track coach, and assistant boys basketball coach. I had quit boys basketball after three years for various reasons, mainly an unhappiness with the new boys head coach. In the summer of 1977, I was called in and recruited to coach girls basketball. The principal said,"You played college basketball, and you have a laid back personality that will be good working with girls." Later I found out the last coach had been unhappy with inequities in pay and facility use. She had gone in for a meeting with a tape recorder. Things regressed and the administration wanted to move on. I became the girls basketball coach. The administration had someone who wouldn't make waves.
In the middle of my first year, a PE teacher relayed to me what she thought was a compliment. She said,"One of your players was laying down in the lockeroom and obviously didn't feel good but was embarrassed to tell you. I asked if she was going to practice. The player said she had to, because she didn't want to let Coach Massey down."
I wasn't sure where her story was going. The PE teacher continued,"That is why you are a good coach. That girl is going to go out in the world and work for a man, she is learning not to let her boss down."
I really, really hope that is not the lesson I taught as male coach. I hope I made the players feel important and empowered as women as a result of their sports experience.
There are bad males coaching females, and there are bad females coaching females. There are good males coaching females, and good females coaching females. Gender alone doesn't make you good or bad as a coach. My experiences make me believe females coaching females can provide experiences and lessons that a male just can't do. I don't believe it means males should not be hired to coach females, it just means that it is better if a female can coach females.
Females coaching females are role model as a leader which is powerful and valuable to young women. A females perspective allows them to be more aware of issues and needs of adolescent females. Having "been thru it" as a female athlete, there may be greater empathy by a female coach. Female athletes find female coach more approachable.
In five large school downstate conferences, only 21% of girls varsity head coaches are females. We must find ways to encourage more females to choose coaching as a career. High school coaches need to provide high school players with opportunities to lead and to coach. Team captains should be given meaningful leadership training and meaningful opportunities to practice leading. High school players should be given opportunities to "coach" youth players in camps. High school coaches need to use these opportunities to recruit players to coach.
Administrators need to actively recruit female coaches for positions. For decades, administrators have used certain teaching positions as places to hire a football coach, or a boys basketball coach. The same needs to be done for girls basketball.
Once young coaches are hired for positions, the schools must help them grow and develop as coaches. Feeling good about job performance is likely to keep someone in that profession. Young coaches should be put into positions where they can be mentored by older, veteran coaches.
Young male or young female coaches must be encouraged to actively seek out other coaches to become a network of support. When I started out, I jogged every day for 30-40 minutes with the head football coach. These jogging sessions were a daily coaching clinic for me. For much of my career, I have had Mike Reynolds (DeKalb), Thom Sigel (Rock Island), Jay Hatch (Alleman, Riverdale), and Mike Cooper (Ottawa) on speed dial to counsel me on everything from finding a new zone ob to how to handle a discipline issue to dealing with an angry parent. Jay's team and my team played each other 2-3 times per year. Each of us may have lost games to the other because of the counseling the other provided but I think both of us feel our conversations have been invaluable thru the years in helping us grow as coaches.
Young male and young female coaches need to seek these coaching networks. Reach out to others and ask questions, realize most coaches will be flattered that you ask. Join the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association, and attend the IBCA clinic. Not only will a young coach pick up basketball ideas, you will begin to develop your network of coaches. A network may help you thru the tough times in coaching.
The greatest obstacle for women staying in coaching would be trying to handle a full-time job, the coaching job, and being a mother. For most of my professional life, I was probably a B+ basketball coach and a C- father. Most women are not willing to allow those kind of misplaced priorities to exist in their lives. No one can successfully maintain a coaching career without a spouse or family willing support and sacrifice.
School administrators need to be willing to have open discussions with female coaches to explore options that might make coaching possible for a young mother. Allowing a mother to take maternity leave from teaching when their child is born, and still coach would help keep some females in coaching. Perhaps there is a way of adjusting the head coach and assistant coach roles for a period of time. Administrators need to be willing to sit down and discuss possible options that a female coach might pursue. How can the job be adjusted to make it work?
Pay doesn't solve everything but it doesn't hurt. According to Zip Recruiter, Illinois HS coaches average $16.54 per hour, which ranks 46th of the 50 states. I don't think I know any head basketball coach who makes $16 per hour with scouting, film breakdown, summer camps, etc. But to put in perspective the issues for a young mom in coaching, the average pay for a babysitter in Illinois is $16.32. The poor pay can sometimes create a feeling that coaching is a "selfish hobby" as a opposed to being an important, meaningful vocation.
All head coaches need to look at better ways to use their staff. There are some jobs that a head coach may feel they "have to do." Maybe a head coach feels they must do all the film work, but there are areas where the head coach needs to use their assistants. It may be viewed as a combination of lightening the load of the head coach and empowering the assistants. Doing this may free up more family time.
Administrators need to not only allow coaches to have their children be part of the program, but they need to be encouraged to do this. Children at practice or on road trips are a positive. The coach is still doing their job as a coach, but their children get to see mom and the players get to see the coach in her role as a mom.
Conversations between coaches and administrators need to take place before it is too late. There needs to be a continuous dialogue, with the topic being how can we help keep you involved in coaching. Having females in coaching is important enough and is valuable enough that as coaches and administrators, we need to flexible in our vision of high school sports. Getting and keeping females in coaching must be viewed as important enough that we are willing to explore alternatives that can make it work.
My hope is that when young women on high school basketball teams see female coaches in charge of programs and in leadership positions, it will inspire the players to grow to become strong, positive leaders as adults. And hopefully some of them will choose to become leaders as females coaching females!
A great perspective, Coach!
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