Cracks form in male-dominated fields as the first woman prepares to coach in Super Bowl
The 54th Super Bowl will feature a first.
Katie Sowers, a wide receivers coach with the San Francisco 49ers, will become the first woman to coach in a Super Bowl.
Becky Hammons, an assistant coach with the NBA's San Antonio Spurs, recently interviewed for a head coaching position in the league.
The Oakland Raiders, Buffalo Bills and Tampa Bay Buccaneers are other NFL teams with female assistants on staff. The league never had a female assistant coach until Kathryn Smith broke through with Buffalo in 2016.
Women coaching men in athletics, however, remains a rarity.
“This is a little crack,” North Catholic girls basketball coach Molly Rottmann said of Sowers reaching the Super Bowl. “But that stereotype is still out there.
“There aren't that many women coaching girls sports in high school these days. A lot of them have gotten out. A lot of women work or take care of their kids at night. They no longer have the time to coach.”
As far back as 2013, a Forbes Magazine study indicated that 19 percent of Congress was occupied by women, there were six female governors and 69 generals or admirals in the United States armed forces.
In fields such as journalism, law and medicine, 25 percent of the leadership positions were held by women.
Yet of the 122 teams in America's four major professional sports — Major League Baseball, NFL, NBA and NHL — that year, not one had a woman on its coaching staff.
“You don't have to have played a sport to have knowledge of it and be able to teach it,” Seneca Valley girls basketball coach Dorothea Epps said. “It's all in how you relate to the athletes, if you can motivate them and mold a team.“The game is the game, coaching women or men, girls or boys.”Mars girls basketball coach Dana Petruska once coached girls junior high basketball and varsity softball at Pine-Richland. The high school had a man coaching the varsity girls basketball team.When the boys basketball varsity coaching job opened up, Petruska applied.“When (school officials) talked to me, the first thing they asked was how I was going to handle going into a boys locker room to talk to the boys,” Petruska said. “They didn't ask me anything about strategy or coaching methods, offseason conditioning, anything like that.“I asked them how their male girls coach handles going into the locker room to talk to the girls. There was no response ... I didn't want to work for them at that point.”Petruska emphasized that she's “not a women's libber, but even though this is the 21st century, we're still fighting the battle.”As of 2015, 94 of the 137 high school girls basketball teams in Western Pennsylvania were coached by men.That same year, Union (Rimersburg) boys basketball coach Karen Davis was one of only two women in Pennsylvania coaching a high school boys basketball team.Davis had coached the Union girls team previously.“That experience helped me, but the biggest thing was my sons were on the boys team then, and a lot of their teammates were around me quite a bit,” Davis said. “They knew what kind of coach I was and how well I knew the game.“No doubt, that helped me get the job.”Davis officiates high school basketball now. She recently worked a girls game — Corry versus Warren — that featured two women head coaches and three women officials.“First time I've ever seen that,” she said. “All women coaching and officiating a high school game ... very encouraging.”
Her daughter, Penny Davis, is a college basketball official. She was helped along by Violet Palmer, who became the first woman official in NBA history.“Now there are a few officials in the NBA, coaches in the NFL ... It's coming,” Davis said. “Young girls who have aspirations of coaching major male sports, they have a chance now.“But once we get the chance, we have to prove ourselves. These women have done that. Men may get another shot. Women? Probably not.”Slippery Rock High School girls basketball coach Amber Osborn — a former standout player at Slippery Rock University — says it's on her “bucket list” to coach a boys team.“I coach my daughter's youth team and my son asked me why I don't coach his team,” Osborn said. “I couldn't come up with a reason, so I started doing it.”Osborn and her husband have a large family, “but you can always find support to do what you want to do.”Epps and Moniteau girls coach Dee Arblaster admit they've never wanted to coach a boys team.“I enjoy the lighter side of girls sports. They can be silly in practice at times and I enjoy that,” Epps said.“I agree the girls can be silly,” Arblaster said. “I find that annoying. But they compete just as seriously.”Petruska acknowledged that player salaries are going up in the WNBA, “but the pay is still 8,000 percent lower than what the guys make. There is still a wide disparity.“You don't have to be physically strong to be able to coach. Things are slow to change, but women are beginning to make a crack in male-dominated sports. I think it's great.”Davis agreed.“There's a long way to go,” she said. “At least, there is hope that wasn't there before.”
