Black women dominate college basketball courts. So why is coaching still overwhelmingly white?
More than 45 years after the passage of Title IX — which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any federally funded educational program or activity — women coaching collegiately in Division I hold a little less than 60 percent of head coaching opportunities in women’s basketball, but black women head coaches held only 11.4 percent of the coaching positions.
“I think there are less women becoming head coaches in general, but you’re even less as a black woman as far as head coaches are considered,” said Kachine Alexander, who has been assistant coach for the women’s basketball team for three years at Florida Atlantic University.
According to a study done by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) who released the 2017 College Sports Racial and Gender Report Card (CSRGRC):
- Women head coaches in Division I women’s basketball increased from 55.9 percent in 2015–2016 to 59.0 percent in 2016–2017.
- African-American women head coaches held 11.4 percent of the positions in 2016–2017.
- Of the total assistant coaching positions held on women’s teams in Divisions I, II, and III during 2016–2017, white assistant coaches represented 73.1 percent, 74.6 percent, and 86.5 percent respectively. African-Americans held 14.9 percent, 10.7 percent, and 7.1 percent for Divisions I, II, and III respectively.
- African-Americans were so unrepresented as head coaches in Division III that the percentage of women coaching men’s teams was actually higher than the percentage of African-Americans coaching men’s teams (6.2 percent versus 5.0 percent)
Historically, white athletic directors (ADs) hold an overwhelming percentage of AD positions. In the 2016–2017 year, 86 percent, 87 percent and 93 percent of positions in Divisions I, II, and III respectively were held by white males, contributing to the lack of representation for women, minorities, and black female head coaches.
“I believe ADs do take chances, but majority of the time they are not taking chances on [black women],” explained Coach Desma Thomas-Bateast a two-year assistant coach at Florida Atlantic University and a former Head Coach at St. Thomas University. “They are more likely to take a chance on a white male that has never coached women’s basketball, before they hire a minority female that has been in the game for more than 15 years.”
There are concerns within the racial divide of being black and coaching that minority coaches are not given a chance to have those top-tier jobs and when they are given them they do not receive the same amount of time to rebuild a program as a white male or female would.
“You’re in a situation where, if you don’t succeed you are out. I was Sweet 16 last year, [but] I’m concerned if we don’t do well this year,” explained Head Coach Felisha Legette-Jack, a coach at the University of Buffalo, in a roundtable interview amongst other black coaches for The Players Tribune.
Carolyn Peck, who is known for being the first African-American woman as a head coach to win a Division I basketball national championship while coaching at Purdue University, held a head coaching job at the University of Florida for five seasons.
Three out of the five years Peck was heading the team, she made it to the postseason making two NCAA tournament berths. In her second season making it to the second round of the NCAA tournament and in her fourth season losing in the first round. After a lackluster fifth season with the Gators Peck was then fired and precedent by Amanda Butler who spent ten seasons with the Gators until her departure with the team posting a record of 190–136.
Peck did not see a head coaching title after her departure with the Gators. Second chances and equal length of opportunity for black women after a rough year are few and far between.
“A lot of times when you see minority females in head coaching positions, and I only know women’s basketball, and you quote unquote ‘don’t do well,’ they usually don’t replace you with another minority female,” expressed Thomas-Bateast. “But Cincinnati has done a phenomenal job at keeping women and minorities in head coaching positions in their women’s basketball program.”
Cincinnati Bearcats women’s basketball former head coach Jamelle Elliott finished off her tenth season with the Bearcats, and was preceded by esteemed coach Michelle Clark-Heard, who had finished a successful six seasons as the head coach of Western Kentucky University leading them to 154 wins and four NCAA tournament appearances.
Dawn Staley, head coach at the University of South Carolina, touched on her perspective of black women in coaching positions in an article by The Players Tribune titled Where Are All the Black Coaches? “Black women in coaching positions are held to higher standards — especially because there are so few opportunities,” she said.
Staley also mentioned that representation for black female athletes is an important aspect besides the game itself. Black female student-athletes in women’s basketball make-up 43.4 percent in Division I.
“It is more to even just to identify, but just to understand the struggle and the fight that we all have in life. So just having that representation is key and I think is vital,” stated Thomas-Bateast.
Players agree as well. Red-shirt senior guard for the Florida Atlantic Owls Danneal Ford expressed the importance of representation as a black student-athlete.
“I can honestly say that I think it is very important just because having someone that you can relate to as being a black woman…most white males or most white women don’t understand the role we play as being athletes in our skin,” Ford said. “So I would say having an African-American person there, more so a woman, is beneficial us in the aspect of helping us get through tough times that we can understand.”
“That is one of the biggest reasons why I got into coaching. I wanted my players to feel like people before athletes, and there are so many things that I go through that [women] go through, that men don’t go through and they don’t understand,” Alexander said. “I think that it is important that we can have someone relatable no matter what, and I am going to be blunt honest: it is important that [players] can have someone to talk to about whether its Black Lives Matter and having someone who can relate.”
