McCoughtry has never had a Black female head coach, but did have the impactful guidance of Michelle Clark-Heard, a Black woman whom Jeff Walz brought on as an assistant when he took over at Louisville in 2008.įile photo: Cincinnati’s Michelle Clark-Heard calls out to her team during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in the American Athletic Conference tournament finals against Connecticut at Mohegan Sun Arena, Monday, March 9, 2020, in Uncasville, Conn. “There’s just a disconnect in understanding things,” the 36-year-old said, adding: “We need more coaches to protect us.” She’s fielded frustrating questions from white peers, coaches and owners - like how often she washes her hair, or whether her passionate play was because she was from Baltimore. Marynell Meadors, a white woman, was her first coach in Atlanta. Her AAU and high school coaches were Black men. 1 overall pick by the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream, got used to being around people who didn’t look like or understand her. “Why can’t we have 10? There’s 10 Caucasian coaches every decade.”įile photo: Team USA player Angel McCoughtry (8) drives during a spring training practice session, Friday, April 1, 2022, in Minneapolis. “So there’s one or two every decade,” McCoughtry said. McCoughtry also named Carolyn Peck, the first African American woman to coach her team to an NCAA women’s basketball title in 1999 with Purdue, as another example of representation in the sport. “When I was getting recruited in high school, I don’t remember having a Dawn Staley to look up to,” said McCoughtry, who played at Louisville from 2005-09. (AP Photo/Mic Smith)įor years Staley has been an advocate for hiring more female coaches - especially minorities - in college basketball, but WNBA player Angel McCoughtry said Black female coaches as successful as Staley are still too few and far between in the sport. South Carolina’s coach Dawn Staley argues a call during their game against Tennessee in the second half of the championship game of the Southeastern Conference women’s tournament in Greenville, S.C., Sunday, March 5, 2023. “But I will say that giving women an opportunity to coach women and helping women navigate through life like they have navigated through life will allow your student-athletes a different experience than having a male coach.” “And it’s not to say that I’m going to sit here and male bash, because we have a lot of male coaches who have been in our game for decades upon decades,” said Staley, who will lead her team into the Final Four this weekend. WHYY thanks our sponsors - become a WHYY sponsor That’s less than 22% of the total in a sport that was played by more Black athletes (40.7%) than any other race in Division I, according to a report with data from the 2020-21 season.įor the first time in a decade, four Black coaches advanced to the Sweet 16 of the women’s basketball tournament, including Staley, who said she believes it’s more popular to hire a woman at “this stage of the game.” In women’s NCAA basketball, a sport made up of 30% Black athletes, Black women made up 12% of head coaches across all divisions during the 2021-22 season, according to the NCAA’s demographics database.įourteen Black women led women’s basketball teams across 65 Power Five programs this past season - up one from 2021. During the 2021-22 school year, 399 Black women coached women’s NCAA sports teams in Divisions I, II and III compared with 3,760 white women and 5,236 white men. While the number of women coaching women’s sports has increased in the past decade, Black women continue to lag behind most other groups. Black female players who have been coached by a Black woman told The Associated Press that it was crucial to their development. (AP Photo/Mic Smith)īlack female representation in the coaching and sports administrative ranks has existed on a minute scale - even in a sport like basketball, which along with track and field has the highest concentration of Black female college athletes. South Carolina’s Brea Beal (12) brings the ball upcourt against Maryland in the second half of an Elite 8 college basketball game of the NCAA Tournament in Greenville, S.C., Monday, March 27, 2023. “As soon as I got here, she definitely led me down a journey so I could find out who I am.” “People that were telling me what this community was about, I know it’s somewhere I wanted to be,” Beal said. Beal knew that Staley - a Black woman like her - would best understand how to guide her as she navigated both life and playing basketball on a big stage. It wasn’t just Staley’s coaching accolades, which include fueling South Carolina’s meteoric rise in women’s basketball, that sold Beal. South Carolina senior guard Brea Beal knew she could trust Dawn Staley before she even suited up for the Gamecocks.
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