YES. I AM THE COACH.

I've been the head coach of the Lexington High School Girls Cross Country team for seven years.  I started as the assistant with the intention of learning the ropes for a few years before trying to find a head position in Lexington or elsewhere.  After my first year as a volunteer, the previous coach, also a woman, unexpectedly quit and I happened to be in the right place at the right time.  Fortunately, the athletic director had enough confidence in me after having worked with the girls for only a year to give me the head coach job despite my lack of experience.  I was admittedly not quite ready to fill the shoes of the previous coach, but damned if I wasn't going to give it a shot.  I leaned heavily on the mens team's coach and his assistant as well as the coach for the middle school team, all of them men and all of whom have become and still remain peers and good friends of mine.  I dove into books, I picked other coach's brains and I did my best to figure things out as I went.  I made mistakes.  I learned from them.  And every year I came back with more knowledge and a better understanding of the sport and the mind of a high school athlete.  Since I became head coach, my team has been Middlesex League champions for five out of seven years.  They have been EMASS Divisional Champs for three.  And they have qualified for the MIAA All State Meet for all seven years.  Am I bragging?  Yes.  But, not about myself.  The girls do the work.  They put the miles in.  They toe the line.  And they are the ones who get the results.

EMASS DIVISION 1 CHAMPS 2018

I just guide them along the way and help them be their best when it matters.  In the world of coaching, specifically high school cross country, there are not a lot of women coaches.  Perhaps it's because the hours are tricky (after school and weekends).  Maybe it's because the pay isn't high enough and often requires holding two jobs to make it work.  Which then means she might have to find a job that's flexible enough to leave during the day in order to coach.  Whatever it is, you tend to see men coaching more than woman.  Does it bother me?  No.  Do I wish there were more female coaches?  Of course.  It's fun to work with like-minded peers.  I've got to believe that anyone, man or woman, would agree with that.

w/ fellow coach & friend Steve McKenna

Thankfully, I have felt very welcome in my field despite the fact that I'm one of the few women head coaches in my particular circle.  Over the weekend, my team attended the EMASS Divisional Meet out at Wrentham.  We go to this meet every year and thus this is my seventh year attending.  Seven times I've gone to this meet.  Many of the coaches know who I am, a lot of them know my name and several of them are now good friends of mine.  Bottom line, it's a pretty tight knit community.  So, when my team and I made our way up to the podium after having taken the win and the head coach of the runner up team, a man, went out of his way to shake my assistant's hand and congratulate him on our team's performance, I gave him the benefit of the doubt and assumed he just hadn't seen me.  I made a point to stop and congratulate him myself, mainly because I was impressed with his team's race and also because I was proud of my role that day, as I'm sure he was, too.  He ignored me and kept walking.  I shrugged it off and went up to the podium with the girls wanting only to celebrate them and all of their hard work.  But, I can't lie and say I wasn't annoyed.  And not just for myself.  But for all the women coaches who have to endure similar situations on a regular basis.  And for all the women out there who have a job in a predominantly male field and don't get the credit or, hell, even just the basic recognition they deserve despite being good at what they do.  Nick Willis, an Olympic medalist in the 1500M is coached by his wife, Sierra.  In this article, he gives three good reasons as to why it's important to recognize his wife's role as a coach.  First, because women are scarce in the coaching world, particularly that of professional runners.  He believes this lack of diversity is detrimental to the sport and the athletes who compete in it.  Second, because "acknowledging Sierra's presence is important for future women considering coaching roles in a sport I care about greatly."  And last, and I really love this one, because he has two boys of his own and he doesn't want them to grow up seeing his wife, who is committed, passionate and incredibly talented, not get the credit she deserves.  He doesn't want to normalize the fact that her contributions are often attributed to someone else.  I really could not have summed this up any better. Hats off to this guy.

Post-race w/ KS

Back to our meet.  Later on that day, one of my friends and fellow coaches asked me about this specific experience, which I'd mentioned to him and several others.  I told him it bothered me.  He understood.  But he told me not to let it; that it wasn't worth it.  He was being supportive and I know what he meant.  It's not really worth the time and energy I was wasting on the situation.  And in some ways he's right.  I need to move on and pour my energy into my team right now.  So, I've put it on the back burner.  It's simmering there.  I suppose I don't really want to let it rest just yet.  Which is why I'm writing about it here.  Maybe that will be enough.  Maybe not.  Either way, it's something.  I love my job.  And it is such a privilege to get to do what you love.  If I'm doing it right, should it matter if I am a man or woman?  Do we really even need to ask that question?

w/ the LHS Outdoor Track coaching staff

Listen to this:

Battle - David Guetta