In this series of Females Coaching Females, I hope the voices of the female coaches and the female athletes have made all of us more aware of the value of having female coaches and the issues involved in getting and keeping females in coaching. I appreciate the coaches who took the time to share their insights.
I want to conclude this series by sharing two last messages from Coach Taylor Jackson (Sterling) and from Coach Kimberly Barth (Washington). In these two passages, they address some of their motivations to coach. I found both their messages extremely inspiring. Both of these women have passion for basketball and their players, both are great role models to their players, and both are VERY talented, knowledgeable, and effective basketball coaches.
Taylor Jackson (Sterling)
It makes it difficult for any individual in this stage of life because you will have to make sacrifices for your family. I feel very lucky that it has been supported & encouraged for my children to be part of our program. It has allowed my children to have unbelievable role models, see the value of hard work from our girls and see the time commitment from our coaching staff. As head coaches there are positives and negatives to everything but I do believe that my kids have been positively impacted during my time as the varsity coach. I also couldn't do it without the support of my husband (also a teacher and coach) and my family who helps in so many ways.
When our players see female coaches, they see women who are passionate, motivated, driven leaders. They can be strong and powerful and also be vulnerable and emotional. It is important for our girls to also see this in women and it is a great opportunity through having female coaches. When I took time off from coaching after having my children, it was a big decision for myself and my family to get back into the coaching world. I knew that my family would have to make sacrifices for me to pursue being a varsity coach but each year they support my decision to keep coaching and love our team the way I do. Speaking from personal experience, my players see me deal with all the things that women juggle each and every day. I don't always handle all of it perfectly but I show up each day for my players and my family the best I can. I always hope that they see this example and take it into whatever their future holds and they can believe that they can do anything they set out to accomplish. I think every coach hopes to achieve this, male or female but I think our athletes benefit from seeing examples of female coaches.
Kimberly Barth (Washington)
I haven't had a lot of female coaches growing up and I feel like I connected with my male coaches. My biggest role model and influence in being a coach is my dad, and the importance of my daughters seeing me do hard things. I want them to see mom accomplish hard things and juggle the craziness of life and know they can do the same.
I feel like I have had the opportunity to support my players not as just their coach but as a mentor, hopefully influencing my players to do hard things as they grow up as well. I hear so many female coaches that say when they have kids, they're ready to walk away and just be a mom and that's awesome. I feel like when I became a mom, I wasn't fully ready to walk away and just give up on my dream; I just adjusted it and made my kids gym rats who are now a huge part of my dream too.
I have enjoyed the challenge of running from place to place, supporting my kids, and being a positive role model for female girls doing hard things in this world. I hope I am forming relationships with my athletes that encourage them to chase their dreams and never give up when things get hard.
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