When Northern Illinois University Athletic Director Cary Groth needed a coach for the women’s cross-country team, she expected the majority of job seekers to be females. Instead, of the 61 applicants, 50 were men.
Athletic directors around the country are having a tough time finding and hiring females, and their frustration is documented by “Women in Intercollegiate Sport,” a 1996 study by R. Vivian Acosta and Linda Jean Carpenter of Brooklyn College.
The study found that in 1972, when Title IX was enacted by the courts to ensure gender equity, more than 90 percent of the women’s teams were coached by females. In 1996, only 47.7 percent of the coaches for women’s teams were females.
In 1996, there were 6,580 head coaching jobs for women’s NCAA teams, an increase of 209 from 1994. However, women hold 3,138 of those jobs, nine fewer than in 1994 despite the growth in the number of teams.
Groth, who is one of only 17 female athletic directors at the 305 Division I schools, said she tries to hire women coaches for women’s teams but admits it isn’t easy.
“If you really want to hire an outstanding female coach,” said Groth, 40, “you have to look for them. We really try to search out people. We call other people in our field and say, `Who’s a good cross-country coach?’ Then we’ll call that coach and say `Would you please apply for the position?’ “
Another study by Acosta and Carpenter reveals some of the reasons more women don’t apply for coaching jobs. The 1992 study focused on 174 women who had been in their current jobs for an average of nearly 18 years. Of the group, 27 percent were mothers and 68.6 percent began their careers teaching physical education.
Seventy-four percent of the coaches had spent their entire careers at the same level of school. There appears to be little ambition to move up the career ladder to a larger college.
“I talked to some women athletic administrators who have been at their schools for 10 years and they say, `I want to stay in my job, as frustrated as I might be, because there’s no point in moving. You can’t move and get a better salary,’ ” Carpenter said. “Money was the key for why they didn’t move laterally or vertically.”
But that may be changing, at least for the top coaches.
Money was a factor in Theresa Grentz’s decision to leave Rutgers after 20 years. Her long stay at the school was typical of what Acosta and Carpenter had found. Grentz and her husband had built their dream house there, and the athletic administration expected her to stay forever.
Then the University of Illinois came calling, and Grentz shocked everyone in May 1995 when she decided to take over the Illini women’s basketball program.
“I really wasn’t looking to leave,” Grentz said. “I wasn’t looking to build another program. I was looking to finish my career and move on. I’ve done everything. I’ve coached every type of team there is to coach. You figure, `Where are we going? Do I have a job, or do I have a career?’ What I wanted was a career.
“A job is where you park your car and you go in and have coffee and say hi to your co-workers and sit behind a desk. I wanted a career.”
What she got at Illinois was a chance to apply her 22 years of coaching experience toward a program that was starting virtually from scratch. Her first season, 1995-96, the Illini women drew 20,000 fans in a season for the first time ever, averaging 1,744 per game. It also was the first time in nine years that Illinois won at least 13 games.
Grentz had rejected other job offers before Illinois came calling. She did receive a raise, signing a five-year contract at Illinois that averages $140,000 a year and includes a $90,000 base. Other money comes from a broadcasting contract, promotional appearances and her basketball camp. In comparison, Illinois men’s basketball coach Lon Kruger has a five-year, $3 million contract, which includes a base of $150,000 the first year.
When Jane Albright-Dieterle moved up from Northern Illinois to become head women’s basketball coach at the University of Wisconsin, she did so without a raise, and she still laughs at her lack of negotiating skill. But her skill as a promoter, of her team and herself, and her skill as a coach have earned her some monetary reward.
After her first season with the Badgers–a 20-9 record and Big Ten Coach of the Year honors in 1994-95–she received a $10,000 raise to $85,000, plus $28,000 for summer camps, a car and a $4,000 country-club membership. Reebok also pays her $14,000.
In her 10 years at Northern Illinois, she lifted the program from games at a physical-education hall to standing-room-only crowds at Evans Fieldhouse.
In 1994, she moved up to the University of Wisconsin and is active both as coach and promoter. She wore a cheesehead onto the court before a game on Super Bowl Sunday, Jan. 26, joining the state’s support of the Green Bay Packers. She sends “thank you” or congratulatory notes to people whom she reads or hears about. She will give clinics, make speeches, visit senior citizens homes, help with Habitat for Humanity or Meals on Wheels.
Each Wisconsin player is required to do six hours of community service during the off-season, three hours in-season. Many devote extra time. In January, the players visited an elderly woman who had not left her home in seven years. They helped clean her house, ran errands and provided much-welcome company. It was a humbling experience.
“My motivation in having them do it is not to get publicity. This lady will never go to a game. But it makes them aware of how fortunate they are,” said Albright-Dieterle, 41.
Today, college basketball coaches have some new job opportunities to consider: The fledgling women’s professional leagues. The American Basketball League began last October, and the Women’s National Basketball Association starts in June.
“You have a lot of 15- and 20-year head coaches who are still young, and a change might be exciting,” said Stanford’s Tara VanDerveer, who coached the U.S. team to the 1996 Olympic gold medal in Atlanta.
“I think women like to grow out, get their roots, establish themselves and grow outward,” Groth said. “Men are on a faster track upward. You see male coaches leaving jobs after two or three years.”
Grentz also thinks if women coaches are to be successful and be recruited, they need to adopt a few of the men’s characteristics. She doesn’t think coaching a team is any different from running a corporation. One has to make business decisions in both jobs.
“Men run the drills; they get the job done,” she said. “They’re just looking at the bottom line. Women look at it differently. If you look at the great coaches in the country–look at any sport–and they’re a little ruthless. Women basically don’t have that in them. It’s not their first nature.”
Grentz says she learned from the guys, calling up male basketball coaches and asking for insight. No one ever turned her away.
“The biggest left-handed compliment I get is when the (Illinois) men’s program was struggling–and I got this a lot–people would say, `We should get Grentz to coach the men’s team,’ ” she said. “If I put my resume in and didn’t put my name on top, I’d be considered.”
