The percentage of women head coaches of NCAA Division-I women’s teams increased for the seventh year in a row, and for the 10th year in a row in the seven select conferences, according to a new report from The Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport at the University of Minnesota, released in collaboration with WeCOACH. It marks a continuing incline for intercollegiate Division-I women sports coaches at the most visible and powerful institutions—but WeCOACH doesn’t consider the work to advance women coaches finished.
WeCOACH was founded in 2011 as a one-of-a-kind 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to recruiting, advancing and retaining women coaches in all sports and levels through year-round professional growth and leadership development programs.
WeCOACH evolved from a professional development program. In 2003, the NCAA piloted a program for women coaches across all sports and division, known as the NCAA Women Coaches Academy. In 2011, Celia Slater and Judy Sweet co-founded a nonprofit organization, the Alliance of Women Coaches, and from 2011 to 2018, the Alliance saw growth and expanded its reach to woman coaches across multiple levels, from youth through high school, college and professional sport.
In August 2018, the organization chose to rebrand as WeCOACH.
Prior to Title IX, more than 90% of women’s collegiate sports teams were coached by women. Now, more than 50 years later, the data indicates that this number has decreased to 41% across all three NCAA divisions, with only 7% women head coaches of color. Only 5% women coach men’s teams. At the youth level, though data is hard to estimate, WeCOACH estimates that fewer than 20% of teams are coached by women.
To help change the landscape for women coaches and the student-athletes they lead, WeCOACH launched MOVE the NUMBERS, a campaign designed to achieve three goals:
- Raise critical funding to support the mission to increase the number of women coaches in all sports and levels.
- Increase the number of year-round growth and leadership development programs.
- Offer enhanced member benefits to impact a greater number of women coaches in the WeCOACH Community.
Learn more about WeCOACH by visiting www.wecoachsports.org, where you’ll find information on membership benefits and events, along with a library of useful resources. RM
