During the crucial developmental stages of an athlete’s life, coaches can have a significant impact on their players and how they grow, not only as players but also as people. Coaches are key role models in an athlete’s life, and they are the people who have the ability to shape and mold an athlete’s path and relationship with their sport. According to the Women’s Sports Foundation, there is a huge underrepresentation of female coaches across all sports, including both women’s and men’s teams. A female role model for young women in the form of a coach is important and can have lasting impacts on female athletes.
Armana Aradom is a track and field athlete and a Berkeley High School junior. Throughout her years as a track athlete, she has been fortunate to have been coached by women. She spoke on the relationships that can be built with coaches who have experiences similar to the athletes they coach. In particular, Aradom appreciates being able to relate to her female coaches in a way that she cannot with male coaches. “A lot of insight can be shared on things that impact women as they develop in their teenhood, and that can impact sportsmanship and just how we grow as athletes,” Aradom said.
For Aradom, one of the big things that she was able to learn from her female coaches was how to build a relationship with nutrition as an athlete, specifically a female athlete. Aradom recalls being guided through misinformation by her coach. She remembers her coach telling her, “Forget everything that the media has ever told you about what to be consuming as a girl and as an athlete. You need your carbs and calories,” Aradom said, “having a woman who’s strong and has been through your sport, has been successful and can give you these testimonials … I think that’s really insightful and important.”
Julianna Hsu is a junior on the badminton team at BHS. As someone who has not had female coaches in her sport, her main female role model has been her mom. To Hsu, the importance of female coaches for players is that they are someone who can understand the problems of a female athlete firsthand. “I think having female coaches creates a sense of relatability because sometimes as a girl you have things that you go through, periods and stuff … with a female coach, I feel more able to say my body can’t do this right now. And they see how you feel, and it’s easier to explain,” Hsu said.
Brianna Smyth is the girls junior varsity and novice swim coach at BHS, and both her experiences with female coaches as a young athlete and role as a coach for female swimmers have shown her the importance of female representation. As a younger swimmer, Smyth had been able to trust her coaches who have been through the same trials and tribulations of growing up as a female athlete more. Smyth said, “It’s great to know that you can talk to them about anything, because they have been in your shoes, and they have gotten out of it successfully. And you can hear about their life a little bit, and hear how they’ve succeeded.”
Smyth became a coach due to being a very technical swimmer, and she has been able to translate that knowledge and coaching to all ages. Something that came up for her when coaching high school aged girls was being upset with the limits or struggles of growing physically and mentally. “I would say when I was coaching club swimming a little bit more, I noticed a lot of struggle in the water, because, especially as girls, our bodies are changing a lot through high school. And I think a lot of them were mentally breaking down because they weren’t as fast as they used to be, because their bodies are changing. So I’ve had many talks about how our bodies are changing and how we can use that to our advantage, to be a better swimmer, and how we can’t let that break us down,” Smyth said.
Smyth spoke on the importance of more representation for strong women in sports, specifically those who may not be feminine or “ideal” for society, but are physically and mentally strong. She wants to create an atmosphere and community in high school where women are brought together to support each other athletically and academically.
Women in sports have always had to stick together, and female coaches should get a chance to inspire and support the next generation of athletes. “I think women in sports have definitely had to build communities, because it’s definitely a marginalized group and a group that’s also dwindling a lot,” Aradom explained. Positive female role models in sports have the ability to help inspire and bring athletes together. “So I think having a community, even though it may be small, definitely makes a positive impact and can really change the outlook somebody has on their life, not just in relation to sports,” Aradom said.