The Raising the B.A.R. Invitational was held last weekend in Berkeley, California. It featured host Cal, Texas A&M, San Jose State, and Winthrop—all four women’s teams were led by Black female coaches.
Formerly the annual Cal Classic, Cal HC Charmin Smith rebranded the tournament in 2021 to elevate the voices, stories, and people in diversity, equity, and inclusion, as well as call attention to the lack of diversity in coaching in women’s college basketball.
Smith, April Phillips (SJSU), Joni Taylor (Texas A&M), and Winthrop’s Semeka Randall Lay are the four non-HBCU Black female head coaches.
Phillips told Yahoo! Sports, “To have four Black women head coaches in one place at one time, it’s really cool. For some, it brings a lot of awareness, primarily that we are minorities in the profession.”