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http://www.usatoday.com/story/sport...a-coaches-womens-college-basketball/99843378/
Fewer women are coaching women’s basketball now than a decade ago, and the coaches who have led their teams the Final Four of the NCAA tournament in Dallas have very different theories as to why.
According to the NCAA’s race and gender database, 56% of Division I women’s teams were coached by a woman in 2015-2016, the most recent season data was available. That’s down from 63% in 2007-2008.
“There’s a reason why there’s not as many opportunities for women. Not as many women want to coach,” Connecticut’s Geno Auriemma said Thursday. “It’s quite simple.”
Auriemma went on to deliver what perhaps he thought was a feminist diatribe, about how many more career opportunities are available to women outside of coaching than when he became Huskies coach in 1985. He said he thinks more women are choosing to have a “normal life” rather than moving into a job teaching physical education and coaching after college.
The two female coaches here in Dallas had other ideas — and it’s not for a lack of interest.
“Women aren’t recycled the way that men are,” Stanford’s Tara VanDerveer said...
...When Melanie Balcomb was fired last year after 14 seasons at Vanderbilt, another head coaching job didn’t quickly materialize. After three months out of work, she accepted as job as an offensive analytics consultant on Dawn Staley’s staff at South Carolina.
“We wanted to keep great basketball minds in our game,” Staley said. “The guys do it all the time. There’s not a great coach on the men’s side that is jobless without wanting to be in that position.”
Still, Staley, who had a Hall of Fame career as a player, isn’t necessarily concerned about the diminishing number of female coaches in Division I. She sees the increasing number of male coaches as one sign of progress for the women’s game.
Fewer women are coaching women’s basketball now than a decade ago, and the coaches who have led their teams the Final Four of the NCAA tournament in Dallas have very different theories as to why.
According to the NCAA’s race and gender database, 56% of Division I women’s teams were coached by a woman in 2015-2016, the most recent season data was available. That’s down from 63% in 2007-2008.
“There’s a reason why there’s not as many opportunities for women. Not as many women want to coach,” Connecticut’s Geno Auriemma said Thursday. “It’s quite simple.”
Auriemma went on to deliver what perhaps he thought was a feminist diatribe, about how many more career opportunities are available to women outside of coaching than when he became Huskies coach in 1985. He said he thinks more women are choosing to have a “normal life” rather than moving into a job teaching physical education and coaching after college.
The two female coaches here in Dallas had other ideas — and it’s not for a lack of interest.
“Women aren’t recycled the way that men are,” Stanford’s Tara VanDerveer said...
...When Melanie Balcomb was fired last year after 14 seasons at Vanderbilt, another head coaching job didn’t quickly materialize. After three months out of work, she accepted as job as an offensive analytics consultant on Dawn Staley’s staff at South Carolina.
“We wanted to keep great basketball minds in our game,” Staley said. “The guys do it all the time. There’s not a great coach on the men’s side that is jobless without wanting to be in that position.”
Still, Staley, who had a Hall of Fame career as a player, isn’t necessarily concerned about the diminishing number of female coaches in Division I. She sees the increasing number of male coaches as one sign of progress for the women’s game.