Two-Year College Coaches of Women's Teams: Gender Differences in Coaching Career Selections

The present study examined the factors that influence male and female 2-year college coaches of women's teams to select and possibly leave a career in coaching. Of 200 coaches from five athletic conferences in the Mid-Atlantic/New England region, 90 (45%) participated in the study. Two separate MANOVAs were used to analyze each of the two sets of dependent variables (reasons for selecting and reasons for leaving coaching) with the independent variable (gender). Univariate analyses showed that females valued “helping female athletes reach their athletic potential” as a reason for being a coach significantly more than males did. Female coaches also rated significantly higher than males the factors “burden of administrative duties” and “increased intensity in recruiting student-athletes” as reasons to leave the coaching profession.