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Women succeed coaching boys' teams

It doesn't happen often, but as North Side's boys golf team has learned, it's not a big deal.

By Dave Benson of The News-Sentinel



News-Sentinel photo
Coaching boys teamsDawn Tudor, North Side High School's boys golf coach, converses with one of her top players during a practice this season. Tudor is one of 12 area women who coach boys teams.

February 1999 was one of the more memorable months in the athletic career of North Side High School's Greg Helmkamp. That was the month he found out that the Redskins' golf team, for which he planned to try out, would be coached by Dawn Tudor.

"At first, I wasn't really excited about it," said Helmkamp, currently in his junior season. "I was kind of like, 'Ooh, a lady coaching a guys' team.' Then I found out she played golf in high school and was a good golfer. I felt more comfortable with it. It took just a couple matches to get used to it after learning what she was about and that she knew her stuff. It didn't take long at all."

Helmkamp's reaction is typical of most male athletes when they find out a woman will coach their team. But as Helmkamp discovered, women have proved capable of coaching boys or men's teams.

Women coaching men's teams doesn't happen often, but more than you might think -- at least on the high school level. There are 12 women who coach boys teams at the 44 high schools in The News-Sentinel coverage area.

On the college level, coaching opportunities aren't as numerous. RoxAnn Krahn, who coaches men's tennis at Indiana University-Purdue University at Fort Wayne, is the only woman in charge of a men's team at an area college.

The numbers are hardly better statewide. The University of Evansville is the only other non-Big Ten school in the state to put a woman in charge of a men's team; the Purple Aces have two. There are seven women employed as assistant coaches on non-Big Ten men's teams in the state.

Ohio State and Illinois, with one each, are the only schools in the Big Ten Conference to have female head coaches for male teams. There are just four female assistant coaches for male teams in the Big Ten.

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Proving themselves

Among Big Ten and other Indiana colleges and universities, 132 men coach women's teams. But while men are quickly accepted as coaches by their female players, women usually have to prove themselves to their male players.

"Some of the kids I have this year, I've been coaching for three years," said Tudor, who has coached North Side High School's boys golf team for three seasons.

"They've all been receptive to my being the coach. The first year was more difficult. A lot of those kids were coached by the wrestling coach. They didn't know me because I didn't teach in the building.

"Initially it was a little uncomfortable for them. Once they learned I had some golfing talent and could teach them, it was a lot more positive."

The players don't question Tudor's comments or strategy.

"She's offered a lot of good tips on the mental part of the game," said Helmkamp of Tudor. "That's where she's helped me out the most. She's given me tips here and there about putting."

Bernadette Mattox has coached the University of Kentucky's women's basketball team for seven years.

But before that, she spent four years as an assistant coach with the men's team under Rick Pitino. Mattox was on Pitino's staff when the Wildcats made it to the 1993 Final Four.

Like Tudor, Mattox had to earn the respect of her charges. Once the players realized she knew what she was doing, though, they had no problems taking direction from her.

"They were very respectful," Mattox said. "They did everything that was asked of them. I was lucky in the fact that I came in with a group of guys that were respectful, hard-working and really loved the game of basketball."

Players aren't the only ones who have to make adjustments.

"It was interesting," said Dori Roth, who coached the boys basketball program at Fort Wayne Christian High School from 1991 to 1997. "I really enjoyed my time there. . . . I think, first of all, it was a new thing for everybody.

"Officials would come up to my assistant coach because he was male and say, 'Hey, Coach, how are you doing?' They saw my male assistant and just assumed he was the head coach."

At halftime and after games, Roth gave her team time to be in the locker room without her. Before entering, she would send in a male assistant to check if the team was dressed.

Surprisingly, these women say they haven't had problems with fans heckling them.

"They were always really good, especially the women," Mattox said. "Everywhere I went, they were really respectful."

Roth's tenure at Fort Wayne Christian went smoothly in that area as well.

"From Day One, they understood I knew what I was talking about. That's the thing in the back of people's minds."

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Why coach men?

Roth now teaches at Heston High School in Heston, Kan. She coaches freshmen girls volleyball in the fall, seventh-grade girls basketball in the winter and high school varsity softball in the spring. She's been thinking about getting back into coaching men's sports, though.

"There is a small junior college in town here, and I've been talking to their men's basketball coach," she said. "I may assist him next year."

For Mattox, assisting Pitino at Kentucky was an opportunity to learn from one of the top coaches in the nation.

"I learned a tremendous amount from coach Pitino," she said. "We're talking about an outstanding coach who really knows the game of basketball. I can't talk enough about what he taught me."

Of the 12 women who coach boys teams in The News-Sentinel's high school coverage area, nine of them double up on boys and girls swimming.

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Will it get easier?

Those schools that have dared to be different are satisfied with the results, as are the players.

Yet, many women who coach men's teams continue to fight archaic opinions.

"I really do think there will be more women coaching men eventually, but there is still that stereotype," Roth said.

"There are people out there who think women don't know as much as men. People should not judge women, their knowledge of the game and how they handle situations harshly just because they are women."

More role models -- such as Stephanie Ready, an assistant coach in the men's National Basketball Developmental League -- could help.

Ready, who was previously an assistant coach for the men's basketball team at Coppin State University, helped the Greenville Groove win the league's first championship this season.

If Ready does well in the NBDL and gets hired by the NBA, the resulting publicity could have an impact at the college and high school levels.

But despite the success of coaches like Ready, Roth, Mattox and Tudor, that might be wishful thinking.

"I'm not sure if women will coach men," said Kristy Curry, the women's basketball coach at Purdue University.

"I just think it should be the best person for the job. It shouldn't be based on sex or race, just the best person for the job. But I'm not sure if you'll ever see a large number of coaches cross over."

Those who do cross over will have Helmkamp's support.

"It's not as much of a problem as people think," the North Side golfer said. "Most people think it won't work out. But if you get the right lady, she'll do as well as a guy."

What's the pay?

Collegiately, head coaches of men's teams in the Big Ten made more than twice as much as head coaches of women's teams in the 2000-01 academic year, according to data compiled by The News-Sentinel.

At non-Big Ten schools across the state, head coaches of men's teams made roughly $16,000 more than coaches of women's teams in the 2000-01 school year.