As we prepare to roll out The Women’s Coaching Network (coming March 2012), an online news network dedicated to promoting, recruiting, and retaining women coaches, we have identified 2 or 3 separate programs this network will carry.  One of those programs, tentatively slated to be titled, The Real Women of Coaching, (hey, don’t blame me, this is the current winner in an online vote!), began filming today.

We had the wonderful opportunity to watch Cindy Griffin, Head Coach of Women’s Basketball at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, PA, run an early morning practice and then sit down to speak with her about her role as a coach.  We discussed how she decided to get into coaching, how her career has progressed, who her mentors are, how she mentors her athletes and assistant coaches, managing her roles as mother to 3 young children and coach to many top athletes, and the support she receives from her husband.

I must admit, I was both excited and nervous to do our first interview, but what I was not prepared for was my own reaction to Cindy’s experience.  With the recent blog post from Anne Kakela on Women in Coaching, Stories from the Front Lines, addressing balancing children with a coaching schedule, I was moved when Cindy shared a philosophy she follows in respect to this idea.  She prefers not to see coaching and mothering as competing forces, but rather, forces that can work in harmony together.  Griffin mentions her team is often an extension of her own family and she has never thought of the 2 as separate entities.  Her children are often with her when she coaches and travels with the team and her players often care for and play with her children in these situations.

Not only do her kids and the players enjoy these interactions, she mentioned it also helps her players to see her not just as their coach, but as a real person with outside responsibilities.  In each instance when Griffin shared a story of an athlete, it was the smile on her face that gave her away, she LOVES the combination of basketball, her athletes, and her children.

Unfortunately I must stop here…I would hate to “give away” everything before our show premiers in March.  Stay tuned for more from Cindy Griffin and other coaches…we will soon be traveling to Washington D.C. and Boston to interview additional women coaches to be featured guests on The Real Women of Coaching.

Below, see highlights from Saint Joseph’s 83-53 victory over Saint Francis on Monday, December 19, 2011 with post-game comments from Cindy.