News

The Tucker Center's Women Coaches Symposium is back and going live and in-person April 22, 2022! Stay tuned for further details.

The 7th annual Women Coaches Symposium has been canceled for 2021 due to COVID-19 considerations. The WCS provides high-quality educational programming, networking, professional development and community building for 350+ women coaches, administrators, students, and those who support women coaches, at all levels of competition and all sports.

After careful consideration and consultation, and in keeping with the University of Minnesota’s guidance for dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, the Women Coaches Symposium (WCS) Planning Committee has made the very difficult decision to postpone the WCS for this spring. We are looking at dates in the Fall to hold the event and will communicate with you as updates unfold.

We want to be proactive in planning for the 2020 Women Coaches Symposium related to the COVID-19 outbreak. We must acknowledge the uncertainty this virus is inserting into planning for April. We are considering how to best support all attendees who may find their lives disrupted by the effects of the virus.

The University of Minnesota staff members and our WCS planning committee continue to monitor COVID-19 and its impact to community members and colleagues' travel. We will keep you updated as we make decisions effecting the WCS.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

We are thrilled Muna Mohamed will be on our Changmakers Panel this year. Recently, the School of Kinesiology at the University of Minnesota ran a story that detailed Muna's achievements.

Muna Mohamed levels the playing field on and off the court.

In just a few short years, Muna Mohamed received her master’s in kinesiology, started her own business, and was recently recognized by three influential organizations on local and international levels...Read the full story  here.

In the seven years we have hosted the Women Coaches Symposium (WCS) we have encountered many amazing women! We know of many exemplar women coaches at all levels of sport who are committed to "doing it right" and we want to honor them. We at the Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport, at the University of Minnesota have developed an award and criteria that honors these women. This award is presented by Jostens.

DEADLINE FOR NOMINATIONS: Monday, March 2, 2020.

AWARD CATEGORIES: We are honoring two coaches: one collegiate coach (any level), one youth sport/high school/or club coach.

LINK to NOMINATE A COACH.

CRITERIA FOR THE WCS Jostens COACH OF THE YEAR AWARDS:
* Commitment to giving back
* Cares about and fosters holistic athlete well being and development
* Strives for performance excellence
* Honors the game by demonstrating good sport behavior & showing respect for rules, opponents, officials, athletes & self
* Maintains high ethical standards
* Conducts herself with professionalism
* Gives back and pays it forward

If you have any questions, please contact McKenzie Arbeiter, [email protected]
We expect the coach and nominator to be present to accept the award at the WCS.

LINK to NOMINATE A COACH.

To register for the WCS being co-hosted by the Tucker Center, WeCOACH & Gopher Athletics, held on April 24 at TCF Bank Stadium and see our amazing program and speakers visit WCS.UMN.EDU

We know that some coaches and coaching practices are detrimental to the health of female athletes. Read this story titled, Toxic sport cultures are damaging female athletes’ health, but we can do better.

To address and to educate coaches, at the WCS 2020 we have invited a panel of health professionals from the TRIA Women's Sport Medicine Clinic to discuss many of the issues raised in the above article.

On April 24, 2020 we will come together as a constellation of sport coaches.

Constellations are small patterns within a bigger system.

Constellations are roadmaps for a movement, and show the way by providing points of light to let others know they are not alone.

Constellations are not always visible, but invisible does not mean non-existent.

Your network and community of women coaches and those who support you is always there.

Join the 2020 WCS constellation for networking, professional development and community building.

See the Speakers Tab for our confirmed speaker list.

Hosted by Hudl and WeCOACH.

Dec. 16, 2019
10 a.m. – 4 p.m. CT

REGISTER NOW!

Valorie Kondos Field is the retired head coach of the seven-time NCAA Champion, 22-time Regional and 18-time Pac 12 Champion UCLA Women’s Gymnastics team. Inducted into the UCLA Athletic Hall of Fame in 2010, the four-time “National Coach of the Year” was also named “West Region Coach” of the Year and Pac 12 “Coach of the Century” for her solid track record as a preeminent coach.

Affectionately known by her gymnasts as “Miss Val,” her reputation is only one reason that 46 former US national team members came through her program and why half of the last two Olympic teams committed to UCLA. Valorie’s coaching success can be attributed to her extraordinary leadership and mentorship of young student-athletes, and the way in which she used gymnastics as an avenue through which to teach valuable life lessons, while encouraging individuality and joy. Something Valorie learned from the late John Wooden, the legendary and most successful collegiate basketball coach of all time, who was one of her biggest inspirations, as well as a close mentor and friend.

Click here to download and read the report.

Meet 8 Women Coaches Who Will Fire You Up in our video shorts produced by tptMN as a result of our full length documentary Game On: Women Can Coach.

In a world of sports dominated by male coaches, these women teach female athletes about leadership and perseverance.

From soccer field to shining hockey arena – and every homespun and professional-grade sports venue in between – more young women flock to sports now than at any other time in history. Even though hopeful trends suggest that global viewers are starting to engage more in women’s sports (according to a 2018 Nielsen study), women’s teams garner less financial support than men’s teams – and female athletes tend to earn less than their male counterparts.

But there’s another glaring problem staring down the sports industry. Despite the explosion of women participating in athletics today, a shockingly small percentage of them are coached by women.

Twin Cities PBS partnered with the University of Minnesota’s Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport to explore the organization’s research on this issue and the barriers women face on a career path to coaching. So we interviewed eight women coaches to dispel false narratives, discover some solutions and highlight why it matters to have women coaching.

As part of our partnership with tptMN, we’ve also featured Minnesota Lynx Head Coach and General Manager Cheryl Reeve. 

Reeve was the 2019 WCS Jean K. Freeman Keynote speaker.

They also produced a simple guide of major benefits to explain their importance and empower new grads in navigating their hiring forms on day one.

2019 WCS College Coach of the Year: Gretchen Hunt

WCS 2019 Youth Coach of the Year: Jennifer Weber

Pictured here with Dr. Nicole M. LaVoi, Brian Klempke of Jostens, Weber, Hunt, Cheryl Reeve (L ot R)

Award criteria:

•Committed to giving back

•Care about and fosters holistic athlete well-being and development

•Strives for performance excellence

•Honors the game by demonstrating good sport behavior and showing respect for rules, opponents, officials, athletes and herself

•Maintains high ethical standards

•Conducts herself with professionalism

The pics really capture the energy of the event.

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