By Thomas Ricardi
Two words. Sexual assault.
If this isn’t an important reason to avoid male coaches on female teams, I don’t know what is.
There have been some controversial beliefs on male teams being run by a woman, or a female team being coached by a male. Most believe that since the problems, such as sexual assault aren’t noticeable in the sports regime, it doesn’t need to be addressed, which I completely disagree with. Why, you may ask? Let me explain.
Coaches are one of the most important, if not the most important people on the team to have a leader/follower bond with, so when I found out through some research that less than half of female sports teams are run by female coaches, I was shocked.
While it isn’t impossible to have a proper bond with a male coach as a female athlete, it will definitely be rarer. Long story short, it all boils down to three things I believe are important to this argument: Role modeling, harassment, and relating to the players.
As a role model, a coach can guide players to their dreams of being a professional at said sport. This is less effective if there is a sex difference between the player and their respective coach. This can easily be coupled with relating to players and their struggles.
Players are human, just like all of us, which means they will experience things along the way, whether they be emotional or physical. Having someone they can “relate to” is almost as important as having medical staff at a game.
Put this into perspective- say a female athlete is on her period, a male coach cannot relate to such a feeling, likewise for a female coach and a male athlete who was hit below the belt. They’ve never been through such things, and these are only the physical examples.
Going over the emotional aspects could be another article in and of itself. Along with aforementioned concerns comes the possibility of harassment, the most notorious concerns of the 3.
Did you know that 29 % of young female athletes experience sexism from their coaches? That is at least 1 of every 4 young female athletes. And abuse is only one of the many things under the umbrella of harassment.
Women’s soccer coach Paul Riley was one of the many male coaches who had been sexually harassing his athletes during his career. It has been found that around 7 % of female players had been sexually harassed or abused by their male coaches. While this isn’t the majority, that is almost 1 out of every 10 female players being sexually harassed and/or abused, which should be a larger concern than it has been.
I'd like to admit that, yes, there are good male coaches for female teams, and good female coaches for male teams. There are certain situations where one could be better than another regardless of their sex. You also can’t put a sign on every male coach’s back and say they are all sexual offenders.
While I do agree with all of the above points, I find it safer to take the approach of avoiding a coach with a sex that doesn’t match the sex of the athletes they are coaching.
It not only minimizes the chances of rape or sexual harassment, but it also gives the athletes a caretaker who can aid them without sex-related restrictions holding them back, such as a male coach laying their hands on a female athlete to check them for injuries.
At the end of the day, it’s all about being more safe than sorry. There will always be chances of sexual harassment and social impairments between players and their coaches, but having a coach with a sex that matches their team minimizes those issues, leading to a safer, better time for everyone.
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