She Can Coach!

Years ago I had the opportunity to serve as the co-editor of a book Human Kinetics wanted to publish, The Volleyball Coaching Bible.  HK has published this series in a variety of sports.  We decided on the topics for the book and then went after the volleyball coaches that could best write each chapter.  When we finished that project I told the publishers a book I thought needed to be written was a book with the top women’s coaches in sport.  They agreed and told me to put a proposal together.  As I shared this idea with others around the country several people commented (mostly men) that yes, this was a great idea.  They recommended the women’s basketball coach from U. Conn, the UNC Women’s soccer coach and the U. of Arizona women’s softball coach.  While all of these are highly successful teams, they are coached by men so this was not the concept I had in mind.  I wanted to pick the brains of the top women coaching women.  So I came up with the topics I thought were important, did some research on successful programs at all levels, and began contacting those coaches.

The book, She Can Coach!, has 20 chapters written by coaches in 13 different sports.  The chapters on professional and personal topics include coaching philosophy, ethics, professionalism, competitiveness, motivation, decision-making, self-discipline, focus, stress management. The remaining chapters are more about programs and relationships which include organizational skills, staff management & mentoring, assistant coach role, team management, athlete recruitment, coach-athlete relations, team cohesion, parent relations, marketing and media and networking.  The coaches I was able to sell the idea to were EXTREMELY successful, winning Olympic medals, National, Conference and State championships…the best of the best.  I was able to get each coach connected with a topic that interested them starting with Pat Summitt and the staff management chapter.

This was a labor of love for me being able to share my passion of coaching young women with the best in the business.  She Can Coach! makes the connection between coaches of all sports much like this Women in Coaching blog and the Alliance of Women Coaches organization.  We can all learn so much from one another about coaching young women and get the much needed X’s and O’s from other sources.