In 2000, the NCAA took a look at the number of minority women who were head coaches in Division I women’s college basketball and the statistics were underwhelming — only 19 head coaches out of 330 programs. Over the next two years, the Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee brought in various associations involved in basketball to try to figure out how to advance minority women in coaching.
With NCAA Matching Grants for the Advancement of Minority Basketball Coaches, two distinct programs were born. Black Coaches and Administrators developed the Achieving Coaching Excellence program (ACE) to work with experienced assistant coaches who wanted to become head coaches, helping 12 participants per year. At the same time, the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association introduced “So You Want To Be A Coach,” which takes a group of 50 young women who have completed their playing eligibility and gives them a two and a half day crash course in what the coaching profession entails. With the NCAA Tournament starting tomorrow, many players are at or near the end of their playing days and are deciding whether they will make coaching basketball a career.
Each year, So You Want To Be A Coach, which debuted in 2003, takes place at the site of the WBCA annual convention and NCAA Final Four. This year, it will be April 4-6 in Tampa Bay, Florida. Participants are selected through an application process, which includes nomination and recommendation by that player’s head coach, who must be a WBCA member. It is open to Divisions I, II, III and NAIA, but the majority of applicants tend to be Division I, because it is typically their universities that pay the cost of attending.
“For a lot of the players, the sport is their passion. They’ve got to decide if coaching is [also their passion]. In coaching, you’ve got to be a counselor, a teacher, an advisor and a coach. You have so many hats to wear,” says Betty Jaynes, former CEO of the WBCA and now a consultant with the organization. “We’re meeting with them at a time when they’re trying to make up their minds if this is what they want to do. We present them with a smorgasbord of presentations that help them determine if they want to be a coach or not,”
Participants first meet with the WBCA’s non-Division I board members. “We want to make sure that these players understand that they’re probably not going to be hired in Division I,” says Jaynes. “There are good positions in Divisions II, III, NAIA, junior college and high school.”
Twenty-nine of the participants from the 2005 So You Want To Be A Coach program scored jobs in the field. Jaynes estimates that 16 of the 49 attendees from 2006 went into coaching. From the 2004 class, 25 found coaching jobs and 19 from 2003. She doesn’t yet have the numbers from 2007.
Jaynes says some changed their minds about coaching after attending the program, either opting to play professionally in the WNBA or overseas or opting for another line of work. The participants represent a broad range of majors — from English to pre-law to engineering — so some may follow those paths.
