Another View by Charles Hallman
At least 174 U.S. institutions have zero women head coaches of color, says the latest University of Minnesota Tucker Center report. Lois Arterberry (women’s tennis) is Minnesota’s only Black female head coach.
Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), on the other hand, have 13 of 15 institutions with 100% women coaches of color. Yet this is still less than 50% of all U.S. women head coaches, says the Tucker Center’s 2023-24 “The Women in College Coaching Report Card” (WCCRC) for NCAA D-I institutions.
This is the fourth year the center has reported racial identity data.
“Women coaches of color are dramatically and disproportionately underrepresented, given fewer opportunities, and face additional barriers due to the intersection of sexism and racism,” its executive summary points out.
White coaches held the majority (2,994) of Division I head coaching positions (81.1%).
The number of head women coaches of color in 2021-22 (245, 6.7%) of women’s teams increased to 308 (8.3%) in this year’s report, the highest recorded in the four years of gathering racial data, says the WCCRC.
Squash and wrestling (50%), track and field (43.5%), basketball (36.5%) and soccer (12.4%) rank at the top among 28 sports, while other sports had zero women head coaches of color.
Coaching diversity remains a rarely discussed topic in PWMs (primarily White media), but not so in Black media. We recently asked whose responsibility it is to improve coaching diversity in colleges and universities.
“I have felt that it is a priority,” said Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti, whose conference has only two Black women head basketball coaches. “I will say that some of this is cyclical. I think it’s partly pipeline, developing assistance, opportunity.”
Later, Petitti told me, “It takes all of us going in the same direction. It’s being honest about the results we’re seeing. If it’s a trend going in a different direction, you want to make sure you are paying attention.
“Diversity should lead to more and more opportunities,” he stressed. But in actuality—and as the WCCRC also noted—diversity has not led in the way Petitti is talking about.
The WCCRC pointed out that whenever a head coaching opportunity occurs, Blacks and women of color don’t always get that chance to fill them. Over 65% of openings formerly held by a white coach are replaced by white coaches, as opposed to nearly 15% by a Black or woman of color, and 10.8 percent whenever a Black coach replaces a Black coach.
Rutgers’ Coquese Washington is among that 10 percent mentioned in the WCCRC report—she is one of the two Big Ten Black WBB coaches. “We don’t often get the great job,” said the third-year Rutgers coach. “We often get the disaster fire. And then you have to be given time to do that if you want it. Done in a way that can promote longtime success. We don’t often get that opportunity.”
Wisconsin’s Marisa Moseley is Washington’s counterpart, hired in 2021. “Everybody has a responsibility” to improve coaching diversity, said Moseley.
“I think it starts with what your priorities are. The positions that we put young Black women in…the access, the skill development, and you are put in the position to be successful and work your way up—it’s [up to] those people in those positions in administration.”
Moseley concluded that Black coaches cannot be pigeonholed as only recruiters, as is often the case. She bemoaned the fact that too many people in charge of doing the hiring also “don’t look like me,” said the veteran head coach.
Charles Hallman welcomes reader comments to challman@spokesman-recorder.com.