By Staff
Coaching Management, 9.5, August 2001, http://www.momentummedia.com/articles/cm/cm0905/bbladies.htm
On two different March evenings, at opposite ends of the country, two female head coaches achieved what some would regard as inconceivable. They led their boys’ basketball teams to state titles.
Amy Rakers, Head Boys’ Basketball Coach at Kodiak High School in Alaska, led the Bears to a storybook win over perennial powerhouse East Anchorage High School. In only her second season at the helm, Rakers guided her team to a repeat appearance at the 4A tournament (where the Bears had placed third in 2000), and bounced back from a 10-point deficit in the third quarter to defeat East Anchorage, 55-52, for Kodiak’s first state title in over 30 years.
Meanwhile, 3,500 miles south, Arkansas’ Marked Tree High School boys’ basketball team was also enjoying a big win under the leadership of its Head Coach, Barbara Wilburn. On March 9, Marked Tree defeated Turrell High School, 54-49, for the Class AA state title, making Wilburn only the second woman in Arkansas Activities Association history to lead a boys’ team to a championship.
“At the time, it really just seemed like we’d won another ball game,” says Wilburn. “And I think it was probably early May before it finally hit me that we won THE state title game.
“But it’s been fantastic. People from all over Arkansas have been calling with congratulations and sending cards.”
Although Wilburn has received tremendous support from her administrators and community, she still encounters skeptics on the court because she’s a woman. “When we participated in the Wendy’s Classic, before our match the opposing coach and his assistant were standing in the hall,” she recalls. “And when I walked through with my team, they thought I was the cheerleader sponsor. Later, I had to walk by their bench to get to mine, so I stopped to introduce myself. And the coach just looked at me, laughed, and said, ‘I know this is a joke.’
“Even at the state tournament, I walked in with my male athletic director and the greeter started telling my AD where the hospitality room was and other details,” she continues. “And when the AD told him he needed to give me that information, that I was the head coach, the greeter looked at me, looked back at the AD, and proceeded to tell the AD again. The players stood there telling him, ‘She’s our coach,’ and he still didn’t believe them.”
Skeptics aside, Wilburn feels that being female has, in some areas, been an asset to the team. “Most of the young men on my team come from families without fathers,” she explains. “Yet they know mom has always been there for them. So being female, which they have positive associations with, has been an advantage for me.
“Also, there has always been talent here, but coaches before me didn’t discipline the athletes at the level they needed. So I’ve established myself as a disciplinarian, and that’s been the team’s foundation.”
As for up-and-coming coaches, Wilburn encourages other women to follow her lead. “If there are women out there who really want to coach boys’ basketball, I’d advise them to go for it,” she says. “There are people who will have doubts about your abilities, but if you keep your head up and your mind focused on what you want to accomplish, it’s all downhill from there.”