Women's Hoops Blog

Inane commentary on a game that deserves far better


Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Graham's new article has a slightly different slant, but the headline, "Wanted: More Women Coaches," echoes back through the years.

For instance, from April, 2006:

WANTED: MORE WOMEN COACHES

This year, when North Carolina’s Sylvia Hatchell received the RUSSELL ATHLETIC/WBCA Division I National Coach of the Year award, every other award went to a man. “I’m not saying the men shouldn’t have opportunities to coach, but where are the women?” wondered Hatchell. The most recent studies show the decline in female coaches that started as more money came in to women’s athletics has continued. Contributing factors include the loss of female athletic administrators, the fact women are no longer limited to the traditional teacher-nurse-secretary jobs and, well, admitted Hatchell bluntly, “It’s a lot of hard work. A lot of people don’t want to put in the time.”

“I think these kids arrive at the age of 22 with a sense of entitlement,” said Janice Quinn, New York University’s (DIII) head coach for 18 years. “I see them jumping into coaching as ‘What they can get out of it?’ There are some really good people out there, but you really have to encourage the right people to get in to it. Being a leader is hard. Being a coach, being an administrator is a very challenging profession right now. The challenge is to curb the sense of entitlement with, ‘Hey, the fact that you’re getting so much out of this — what is your responsibility to give back?’”

“There has to be an appreciation for our history,” explained Howard University coach Cathy Parson. “And it happens across the span of life, where we feel the younger generation doesn’t quite embrace it the way they should. We have a responsibility that they understand it, because as they become older, that’s when they embrace it. I’ve never asked any of my younger coaches, ‘Do they feel entitled?’ but their actions indicated that they feel entitled. It’s very clear that the issue of paying your dues has not been preached so much to them as it was to myself,” Parson explains. “You have to work hard and nothing is promised to you. For me it’s like, ‘Okay, why are you involved in coaching? Is it because you have a passion for the youth? Is it that you really want to leave a legacy for the next generation? Is it because you really want to make a difference? Or is it that you really just want to go out there and make a name for yourself as quickly as you can, make as much money as you can and then just get out of it as fast as you can?’”

Georgetown’s (NAIA) Johnson knows a quick fix. Consider, she said, what a Junior College coach did this past convention: brought along a former student, now at another institution, and took her to everything, including the celebration of the 25th NCAA Silver Anniversary team. During the question and answer period, the young student-athlete asked Tennessee’s Pat Summitt a question (one of the few who dared). “Pat offered that woman a job at her camp because she had the gumption to get up,” Johnson pointed out. “Now that young woman is networking with people who can make a difference in her life. Who can encourage her to go in to coaching, to pursue her dream. If every coach in the country had done that, we’d be set with women coming in to the profession.”