Women take charge at sport leagues, Fortune picks 7 stars

A movement of sorts has begun in sports with more and more women joining the team at management levels. A decade back women were still fighting to enter certain games they enjoyed playing. Women were struggling to make their own teams. And look at the progress with women becoming coaches of not just women teams, but also men’s teams for games like baseball.

All this started with the San Antonio Spurs hiring Becky Hammon in August 2014 and it hasn’t stopped yet. Since then four females coaches have been hired for different all men’s teams and three at other influential posts. The latest one is Justine Siegel, a temporary coach as yet to Oakland Athletics for its Instructional Athletics Teams.

Past 14 months have seen a drastic change in international sports community and this change has yet to enter the Indian counterpart of sports community as well. Becky Hammon became the first-ever female NBA Summer League Head Coach.

Pic by USA Today

“Yes, she’s the first woman to do it. But if you ask her, basketball is basketball and she’s simply a developing coach using the Summer League to sharpen her skills, just like the rookies and prospects that she’s coaching this summer,” reports Fortune.

Sarah Thomas became the first female official of NFL in April this year. She is a Former college basketball player and now will be seen as a line judge.

Third in line is Dr. Jen Welter of the Arizona Cardinals was a former football player and coach. Jen was hopeful that she would be kept as a permanent coach for regular season of NFL instead she has been called on to be the preseason coaching intern working with outside linebackers. She had a rugby career at the Boston University and fourteen years old experience in pro football.

As the rage of having women on board the most macho teams in sports roared, hiring began in full swing in other teams as well. Beth Mowins, NFL announcer now is only second to Gayle Sierens, who was an announcer almost three decades back. The Oakland Raiders have made the announcement of having Beth on the post.

Pic by Women Sports Foundation

Nancy Lieberman has been in the sport far too long so it was imperative for her to be in one of the top posts. Her career expands to have played for Team USA at the 1976 Summer Games in Montreal and playing women’s professional basketball for over 20 years. She has now been hired as an assistant coach for the Sacramento Kings.

The first Olympic Gold and Silver Medallist Analyst and Reporter, Jessica Mendoza’s young age did not come in the middle of her fetching one of the most prestigious jobs in sports. She has become the first female analyst to call an MLB postseason game- American League wild-card matchup on 6 October.

Back in India, we do have women at the helm of co-owning and managing teams being in the boards like Nita Ambani who is the owner of Mumbai Indians in the IPL, Radha Kapoor, owner of Kabaddi team Dabang Delhi and Preity Zinta of Kings XI Punjab. However, we are yet to see some women being hired on the management posts like the women talked about in this article. We believe it won’t be long as we already see women making waves in sports from all over the country.

Picture Credit- Fortune

Source Article- Fortune