The NCAA News - News and Features

The NCAA News -- November 8, 1999

The gender puzzle:

Volleyball tries to piece together a fit for women coaches

BY HEATHER YOST
STAFF WRITER

For the past several years, scoring formats have been the talk of the women's volleyball community. But these days, the community's focus is on the people doing the talking: coaches -- and not just coaches, but the gender of those coaches.

There is a rising concern that not enough female players are pursuing careers in coaching and that the collegiate coaching ranks do not have adequate female representation.

"We have spent so much time talking about various scoring systems and really it's trivial," said Brian Gimmillaro, women's volleyball coach at Long Beach State University. "We need to be talking about how to get the bright, outstanding players of our sport to consider careers in coaching. It is of paramount importance that we start talking about it, much more so than scoring formats."

Gimmillaro said a red flag was sent up when four top women coaches left the sport this year for various reasons. That alone, he said, is cause for concern in the profession.

"I am not claiming to have the answers or even the right suggestions," Gimmillaro said. "I just think it is time we start talking about it. Those coaches would have been in everyone's top-10 list of women coaches. It should cause us to take a look at our sport and our profession as coaches."

Women who left coaching in volleyball at the Division I level this year included Annie Feller from Santa Clara University; Sue Snyder from the University of San Diego; Lisa Love from the University of Southern California; Cathy Noth, long-time assistant coach at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln; Purdue University's Joey Vrazel; and Laura Smith from the University of Central Florida. Reasons for their departure varied from family obligations to the pursuit of other career opportunities.

"My decision was strictly professional, and I chose to pursue an administrative career," Love said. "I've been serving as both a head coach and an administrator for the past eight years, and I simply made a career choice."

The balancing act

Beyond shuffling lineups, organizing travel and planning practices, coaches admit that the profession is a balancing act.

"The demands of our job continue to escalate, and you have to keep up to be successful -- just like with any job," Gimmillaro said. "We need to find a way to allow women, and men for that matter, to have this professional lifestyle and something more, like a family, and still be manageable."

Collegiate players get a first-hand view of the time constraints and hectic lifestyle of coaching, which may influence the decision to pursue other opportunities.

"This definitely isn't the highest paying position out there," said Megan Clayberg, head women's volleyball coach at Central College (Iowa). "Our players see that there is a lot of opportunity and many high-paying jobs in the business world to take on and gain experience. It certainly adds to the decision of whether to become a coach."

The recently released NCAA Gender-Equity Report showed an average salary of $38,675 for Division I head women's volleyball coaches.

Gimmillaro said the prestige, financial impact and time schedules available in other fields are attracting student-athletes who would make quality coaches, especially those looking to start a family.

"If they truly want women to be able to be 100 percent career woman, 100 percent mother, 100 percent wife, you have to be flexible and find a way to make it work in different situations," Clayberg said. "Otherwise, you won't be able to do justice to any of the obligations you are juggling."

Clayberg, who led her team to the Division III championship last season, works full-time only two days a week to compromise with the practice, travel and match times that vary throughout the week.

"With the weekend and night commitments involved, the administration was willing to be flexible with the workday hours," Clayberg said.

She also said the administration at Central (Iowa) is supportive when her husband and two sons travel along with team.

"I have had the opportunity to apply for jobs at a higher level, but I chose not to do it," Clayberg said. "I am not sure I will be able to find the compromise I have had here and the willingness to make it work."

University of Florida coach Mary Wise also has benefited from a unique situation while balancing family life and coaching.

"It works in my situation here at Florida because my husband's job broadcasting basketball is seasonal," Wise said. "During volleyball, he's the one who takes the kids to the doctor, gets them to soccer practices and the like. When our seasons overlap, it makes for a hectic schedule, but we've managed because we've exchanged traditional roles."

Coaching burnout is not exclusive to families balancing family life, though. The time crunch is a problem for everyone.

"Burnout is a factor in coaching," said Sandra L. Vivas, executive director of the American Volleyball Coaches Association. "It is a full-time, 24-hour-a-day job.

"It is essential that single coaches have a support system at home as well. If they don't have someone at home cooking for them and cleaning their clothes, it can be every bit as draining. If they don't have that support system, it is likely that young women players see that coaches are working all the time.

"I can give you a whole laundry list of coaches who have left, men and women, because of burnout. So many people who love to coach leave the sport because all the other obligations get to them."

Some point to professional support -- an assistant coach -- as a way to help balance the coaching work load.

"I have benefited from having great assistant coaches to make my life work," Gimmillaro said. "Not every coach has the ability to say that or the ability to recruit and maintain quality staff."

Gimmillaro also said that pushing for fully funded programs should be one of the top goals of coaches and volleyball organizations. He said that might help retain women coaches as well.

"If you have a fully funded program, it does more than take care of salary and securing an assistant coach," he said. "If you are paying for something, you pay attention to it. If you are paying for something, you want to make it work. In this case, you want your team to win. It would be a win-win situation, and I think those type of changes would attract coaches."

Role models

Wise worries that aside from the rigors of the job being a deterrent to the profession, the lack of women in coaching today may feed the future void.

"We have so few role models of women as coaches to offer our players," she said. "We aren't grooming our players to step in and be leaders of our sport as we could be. This isn't necessarily just a problem in volleyball. It is even more serious in some other sports like swimming."

A 21-year study completed by R. Vivian Acosta and Linda Jean Carpenter, researchers from Brooklyn, New York, showed volleyball among the sports with the most women coaches, with 67.8 percent of coaches nationally as of 1998. Of the 24 sports surveyed, only field hockey, equestrian, lacrosse and synchronized swimming had higher percentages of women coaches.

Notably, though, the percentage of women coaching volleyball has dropped since the study began in 1977-78. The first year showed 86.6 percent of coaches as women with a yearly decline to the current percentage of 67.4.

"I have had several women coaches," Clayberg said. "My high-school coach was very influential in my decision to become a coach. When I would work camps, she would encourage me and tell me I would be a good coach. Some people don't have those role models."

Wise, who played collegiate volleyball for a woman and has mentored two players who are now Division I coaches, believes males are becoming more and more attracted to coaching and the sport of volleyball.

"There is no doubt that you can make a living coaching at this level," Wise said. "The influx of men who see this opportunity and pursue coaching jobs in volleyball or women's sports will continue to limit the number of (women) role models."

Improving the odds

Some coaches see greater regulation as perhaps a way of improving the odds of retaining women coaches. For example, Division I softball implemented a recruiting calendar for the first time this year.

The National Fastpitch Coaches Association proposal was heavily favored by coaches as an opportunity to help ease the time constraints and year-long pressures of coaching. Some think it would work for volleyball, too.

"I think it would be a good step," Love said. "Obviously, there are a lot of details to consider, but recruiting can be such a perpetual cycle. Regulations might give coaches a healthier attitude about recruiting and keeping up with other coaches."

According to Vivas, the coaching community is talking about the possibility of a recruiting calendar but will need to tailor the details before moving forward.

Gimmillaro also suggested changing the way the maximum number of allowable contests are counted in volleyball to decrease the time teams spend on the road.

He would like to see a system that does not count matches but rather the number of days of school missed.

"It would cut down on the amount of time teams spend on the road and allow coaches with families more time at home without hurting their professional goals," he said.

For now, the AVCA will continue to have presentations and annual forums to discuss the issue at its convention.

"I think getting a panel of coaches, men and women, together and talking about how it works in each situation to balance everything would be great," Clayberg said. "It would be an opportunity for us to learn from each other and take a look at getting more women involved."

Volleyball coaches (by gender)

Division I -- 301 teams

171 Females& -- 57 percent

130 Males& -- 43 percent

Division II -- 252 teams

153 Females& -- 61 percent

95 Males& -- 38 percent

4 Open& -- 1 percent

Division III -- 368 teams

234 Females& -- 64 percent

124 Males& -- 34 percent

10 Open& -- 2 percent