When Georgia Tech women’s basketball coach Nell Fortner was younger, she considered jumping from coaching women to men. She never pursued it, however.
She was asked this week if part of the reason was that she figured she had little chance in a field where few coaches (if any) looked like her.
“Yeah, probably so,” Fortner told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution . “That’s probably exactly what came into my mind.”
It could be argued that the greater loss was felt by whatever men’s players didn’t get the chance to be coached by Fortner. Her career speaks for itself. Among the most noteworthy accomplishments, she led the U.S. women’s team to the gold medal in the 2000 Olympics and is the only basketball coach (male or female) to be named coach of the year in the ACC, Big Ten and SEC.
Fortner’s graduate manager at Tech is Lauren James. She is a potential star in the sports analytics field. While starring at Taylor University in Indiana, James also double majored in math and computer science and earned internships with the San Francisco 49ers and the Indiana Pacers. At Tech, she is earning a master’s degree in analytics, where her classes included machine learning and Bayesian statistics. She can see herself as a coach or a front-office type.
“I have an itch for both,” she said. “Honestly, it’s wherever God’s going to lead me is where I want to go.”
The Hawks’ hire of Brittni Donaldson earlier in June as the franchise’s first female assistant coach caught her notice, but not for the reason you might think. (Note: Like James, Donaldson’s background is in analytics.)
“I think it’s really cool that you see these professional leagues, and not even just the NBA, other leagues (also), really embracing the analytics side of it,” James said.
At the risk of belaboring the point – not so long ago, a woman who had proved herself an elite coach didn’t even consider pursuing a job on the men’s side because she thought (presumably accurately) there was no way she would be seriously considered. And, today, Fortner’s team manager is encouraged by the hire of a coach who is breaking barriers with the NBA team in her adopted city less because it represents the growing inclusion of female coaches and more because Donaldson symbolizes the league’s embrace of analytics.
“I’m going to be honest,” James said. “I understand it’s a male-dominated field, and it never really bothered me. I’m confident in myself, confident in my abilities and can stay right up there with the best of them.”
Kudos to the Hawks for hiring a coach who has proved herself in assistant coach jobs with the Raptors and Pistons, brings a skill set uncommon on NBA benches and also is a woman. While it might not matter as much to James, Donaldson’s status as the first female assistant coach in franchise history (there had been 15 in NBA history as of last season, according to CBS Sports, including six last season) has caught the attention of others.
“I just think with Brittni being hired, it just continues to open doors,” Fortner said.
Danielle Donehew, executive director of the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (based in Lilburn) and herself a former Tech star, said she was pleased but also that it was time, given the number of talented female coaches.
“I grew up in Atlanta, and I’ve always been an Atlanta Hawks fan,” said Donehew, who starred at Sequoyah High in Cherokee County. “I look forward to going to some of the games to see her in action.”
It’s a feel-good moment for anyone, Hawks fan or not, who recognizes the value of a diverse workplace or has ever been passed over for a job for any reason other than lacking the experience and qualifications requisite for the role.
For an entity as prominent in Atlanta as the Hawks to take this step, Georgia State beach volleyball coach Beth Van Fleet said, “it’s very exciting, but it’s also just so important.”
There is more work to be done, though. One female assistant coach on a team is great, but what about two or three? In December, NBA commissioner Adam Silver said that he would be “hugely disappointed” if there weren’t a female head coach in five years. Will it happen?
Let’s address two of the more common concerns/excuses regarding women coaching men – a) the men’s game is different than the women’s game; b) a female head coach won’t be able to command the respect of male players.
First, yes, the game is different, but if it mattered, then why are men coaching women at every level? Second, your favorite team’s players most likely grew up heeding their mothers and learning from female teachers, have friends working in jobs where female supervisors are more common and may have wives or girlfriends. If they have difficulty respecting or following a female coach, then maybe you need a new favorite team.
The bigger challenge is at the college level. According to NCAA data, in the 2021-22 season, all 1,077 head coaches of men’s teams (Divisions I-III) were male. Of the 2,718 assistant coaches, one out of every 181 was female. At the Division I level, one out of every 222 assistant coaches was a woman.
By comparison, in women’s basketball, 58% of NCAA head coaches were female and 66% of assistant coaches were female, where the numbers were 65% and also 66% at the Division I level.
“The part that bothers me is that women don’t have the same opportunities on the other side where men can coach either one,” Fortner said. “If that was a door that swung both ways, no problem.”
The numbers “are undeniable, which tells me and tells all of us that it’s not good enough, and that we have a lot of work to do,” ACC commissioner Jim Phillips said in an interview with the AJC.
It’s worth mentioning that not all female coaches want to coach on the men’s side. But it’s fairly reasonable to assume that there is at least one female coach out there who wants to be a head coach of a men’s college program who would be more effective than at least one of the 352 head coaches in Division I (to say nothing of the thousands that preceded the current set), or that the male/female ratio of coaches deserving of an opportunity to be a Division I assistant coach of a men’s program isn’t actually more than 200 to 1.
Donehew, the WBCA executive director, said that it’s not a matter of female coaches not being up to the task.
“We have so many women coaches that are CEO’s of their program and do it at the highest level, and I believe that’s a formula for success on the women’s side and the men’s side,” she said.
Donehew and Fortner believe the day is coming soon when women receive opportunities in increasing number on the men’s side. It could even happen in the next several weeks, as the NCAA has expanded the size of Division I basketball coaching staffs from four (including the head coach) to six.
Craig Robinson, executive director of the National Association of Basketball Coaches, said in a statement to the AJC that he was similarly confident.
“Men’s basketball coaches and administrators would be wise to cast a wide net when identifying potential hires, and to prioritize building staffs that reflect the diversity student-athletes experience elsewhere in the world around them,” Robinson’s statement read.
It’s a layered challenge with various roadblocks. Women coaches are often constrained by societal norms that couples will move for the husband’s job more readily than the wife’s. When a couple has a baby and one parent has to give up a job, it’s almost always the wife. When the athletic director and head coach both are male, it undoubtedly influences the hiring of assistant coaches. The men’s and women’s games operate largely independent of each other, making networking across the two games more difficult. For head coaches one bad season away from the hot seat, risk-averse strategy is an easy course.
Still, Phillips said it’s “a matter of time” before more women get their chance in the men’s game. He has had conversations with men’s basketball coaches in the conference (and football coaches) on the matter and said that “I think people are paying attention.”
(Phillips also recognized that “words are words, but actions trump anything that you can say.”)
If changes are indeed coming, they’ll come too late for Nell Fortner and the shot she once considered taking at coaching men’s basketball. But perhaps not, if it’s what she determines to be her preferred course, for Lauren James.
“I can see it continuing down the road, I really can,” Fortner said. “And rightly so. I mean, why not?”
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