“It takes a village”: Women’s experiences coaching high school sport

ABSTRACT

We know little about the level of the sport industry that impacts the most athletes in the United States, high school sport. This study seeks to understand the experiences of women coaching in high schools and how they balance their full-time jobs with their part-time coaching. Without girls seeing women in leadership positions in sport, they may not consider playing or coaching in higher levels of sport, much less the front office or other lead administrative roles. Ecological systems theory with a focus on organizational support and interpersonal relationships theoretically frame the study. Qualitative interviews with 20 high school coaches were conducted. We found that support within the family, community, and organization allowed these women to persist within these coaching positions. Women who had flexible and accommodating administrators were able to balance expectations of work and family better. Avenues for future research to build on this exploratory study are offered.

KEYWORDS:

• Coaching
• women
• high school
• sport administration
• organizational support
• work–family conflict

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jennifer Zdroik

Dr. Jennifer Zdroik is an assistant professor in sports management. Her research centers around high school sport and those experiences in and around this pivotal foundation to the sport industry.

Phillip Veliz

Dr. Phillip Veliz is an Associate Research Professor at the School of Nursing's Applied Biostatistics Laboratory and Associate Director of the Sport, Health, and Activity Research and Policy Center. Dr. Veliz's research primarily involves examining large-scale secondary data sets to assess adolescent substance use, health, and participation in organized sports. As a data analyst, Dr. Veliz has published extensively using data sets like the Monitoring the Future, Youth Risk Behavior Survey, and Office of Civil Rights Data Collection and continues to work with new and existing secondary data sources that focus on substance use and health. Dr. Veliz is currently co-investigator on several NIH funded projects assessing prescription drug use, cigarette, and e-cigarette use using data from the Monitoring the Future and National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions-III.