ATLANTA ― Dismayed by the dismal number of minority coaches at the collegiate level, a group of prominent minority college coaches gathered over the Memorial Day weekend to call attention to the gross disparity and to press for change.
Members of the National Association for Coaching Equity and Development (NAECD) held their inaugural meeting in Atlanta where about 60 coaches showed up to embark on an ambitious strategy of pushing colleges and universities to diversify their hiring practices when it comes to filling coaching positions.
“We want to demonstrate that we have a voice as a group,” John Thompson III, head coach of the men’s basketball team at Georgetown University and one of the organizers of the new association, said in an interview with Diverse. “I think, in general, the landscape is going through a metamorphosis and there is a lot of change happening and we have a chance as a group to discuss the issue from a different vantage point.”
Thompson said that the new association will help to fill the void now that the Black Coaches Association has become defunct. The BCA, which at one time wielded some power, was subsequently restructured by the NCAA as the Advocates for Athletic Equity. But many of the coaches have said that not enough is being done to specifically address diversity in the industry in a holistic way.
Over three days, the coaches laid the infrastructure for the new organization, which will be headquartered in Lansing, Mich.
In his keynote address to the coaches, Dr. Richard Lapchick, director of the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida and a contributor on ESPN, said that an organized collective of minority coaches could be a powerful vehicle for pushing for inclusion and was long overdue. In his annual College Sport Racial and Gender Report Card, Lapchick gave college sports a “C+” for racial hiring practices.
The question is whether this organization—which organizers say they would like to grow to about 1,000 members, including coaches from high school and junior colleges—can turn the tide.
