What is the value of coaching with “positive intelligence”? My best memory is that my Mom, who is absolutely amazing and super athletic herself. She was not only the Guidance Counselor for our High School, but also the Head Coach for the Girls High School Basketball Team. I spent many hours in the gym, and I admired her leadership style, her positive coaching style, from a young age. She was an inspirational leader – she believed in the girls and showed them how to play basketball well by covering the basics and working together. More importantly, she helped the girls to believe in themselves, to have confidence in who they were, and to discover who they were meant to be.
How to be assertive, in a good way. How to put effort into the fundamental skills required for playing great basketball. How to work together to play rewarding, collaborative games. How to be both strategic and tactical. That was motivating!
I had no idea of all the barriers she had to bust through for women, but I found out about a few of them. For instance, when I was in Middle School, the Girls High School Basketball Team was relegated to practice in the much smaller, darker, and older Middle School gym, for years. They had to practice on this not even full court, at odd hours, often after 9pm, after the Boys at all levels had finished their practices. They had to earnestly fight for decent gym time and space.
The girls needed an equal opportunity to practice in the “big gym” (the name for the HS gymnasium), so that they were ready to play games on those courts. Most girls’ basketball teams were coached by men at the time, because women coaches were paid much less than the boys Coaches. My Mom was paid one-fourth of what the boys’ coaches were paid at the same school, in the same season, doing the same job. Many male coaches contacted her privately to show their support, because they knew the girls were at a disadvantage, but they did not want to speak up publicly, for fear of retribution.
We had T-shirts made in the mid-1970’s, still my all-time favorite, that said: “Happiness is Girls Athletics”. Girls playing sports was still a new concept, and she was met with a lot of resistance. She knew that sports were important to girls, and she wanted them to have a fighting chance at “leveling the playing field” on the courts, showcasing their abilities, and providing an opportunity for “fair play” at their best, so she persevered. The Girls Basketball Team had a winning record every season (for around 25 years of coaching), went to the State Championships 5 times, had 3 players with over 1000 points, and usually beat the Boys Basketball Team in statistics. When my Mom was named one of the top Basketball Coaches in the Ohio Valley Athletic Conference, then she was ready to be acknowledged and recognized with her team and she made the brave decision to step forward and demand change.
To fight for fair and equal pay, plus to get access to the big gym, my Mom had to go into arbitration with her own High School to get this situation changed. She took the School District to court over “Title IX” rights in the 1970’s. She won. I am very proud of her. My Mom broke down many long-established barriers to leadership for Women, and I am thankful. She made a tremendous difference as a supportive leader and an impactful coach, because she was such a positive role model to so many young Girls for so many years. I feel so blessed that she was my Mom.
