In 1995, Bernadette Locke-Mattox became the first black woman to serve as chief trainer for the SEC, hired in Kentucky. Ten years later, in 2005, Pokey Chatman became the first black coach to take his team to a regular season SEC championship, taking LSU to the crown. Ten years later, in 2015, Dawn Staley became the first black woman to win the SEC tournament championship, taking South Carolina to her first title.
Last Sunday, in 2021, Staley and Joni Taylor became the first black women head coaches to meet in a SEC tournament final, with the Staley Gamecocks surviving a tough race for Taylor’s Georgia Lady Bulldogs.
As Staley said after the game, the fact that she and Taylor are facing each other on the opposite side “is not a matter of race, it is a matter of opportunity”.
Opportunity generates fulfillment. Achievement adjusts attitudes. Adjusted attitudes then begin to erode the barriers of prejudice, contributing to greater opportunities and greater equity. At the SEC, Staley started this virtuous cycle.
THE Dawn new opportunities
Since South Carolina hired Staley in 2008, six other SEC schools have also hired black women to lead their women’s hoop programs. Four have been signed since 2015, when Staley and the Gamecocks won their first SEC tournament title.
History of black women head coaches at the SEC
Auburn: Terri Williams-Flournoy (2012-2021)
Florida: Carolyn Peck (2002-2007)
Georgia: Joni Taylor (2015-present)
Kentucky: Bernadette Locke-Mattox (1995-2003), Kyra Elzy (2020-present)
LSU: Pokey Chatman (2004-2007), Nikki Fargas (2011 to the present)
Mississippi State: Nicki McCray (until 2020)
Mississippi: Yolett McPhee-McCuin (2018-present)
South Carolina: Dawn Staley (2008-present)
Texas A & M *: Peggie Gillom (1998-2003)
The fact that Staley’s Gamecocks have won their sixth tournament title in the past seven seasons – a series of conference dominance that exceeds that achieved by Pat Summitt’s peak era in Tennessee Lady Vols – should further encourage institutions in the SEC, and beyond , to see black women as qualified and competent basketball coaches and female leaders.
The successes achieved by other black female chief coaches at the SEC during 2021 provide further evidence. Taylor led a team from Georgia expected to finish 9th in the poll for preseason coaches on the verge of the SEC tournament championship, after a 10-5 conference record in the regular season. She deservedly won the SEC Coach of the Year award for her efforts.
In Kentucky, the new technique Kyra Elzy kept the talented Wildcats on course, even when she and her team entered the season with uncertainty after the unexpected retirement of former coach Matthew Mitchell. In his third season in Oxford, Yolett McPhee-McCuin began to perform a turnaround on Ole Miss, putting his troublesome rebels in the NCAA tournament bubble after losing the SEC last season.
However, when it comes to elevating and empowering black women as key trainers, the SEC is in stark contrast to other conferences.
Opportunity and equity in other conferences
In Sunday’s ACC final, the opposing teams were trained by two white men, with Wes Moore and NC State defeating Jeff Waltz and Louisville to claim consecutive tournament titles. Pac-12 saw two white women meet, while Tara VanDerveer and Stanford dominated Cori Close and UCLA to win the crown of the 18th Pac-12 tournament for the Cardinal. The Big East championship game on Monday night featured a white man and a white woman as head coaches, with UConn’s Geno Auriemma winning the championship at Marquette’s 19th Megan Duffy conference. Unless C. Vivian Stringer’s Rutgers team advances to the Big Ten title game, the Big Ten and Big 12 conference tournaments will be played by teams led by white coaches and / or men.
In addition to the main teams at each conference, there are opportunities for black women at ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12 and Pac-12. Currently, only five black women are principal trainers at power conference schools outside the SEC.
Current black women head coaches at other major conferences
ACC: Kara Lawson (Duke), Niele Ivey (Notre Dame), Tina Thompson (Virginia)
Grand Orient: None
Big Ten: C. Vivian Stringer (Rutgers)
Big 12: None
Pac-12: Charmin Smith (California)
For the future of women’s college basketball, look south
The state of the college women’s basketball coach beyond the SEC underscores the historic nature of the Staley and Taylor meeting on Sunday. It also emphasizes progress and, in turn, history, which has yet to be made.
The SEC must be seen as the future of women’s college basketball.
The fact that the conference is expected to lead the country with seven seats in the NCAA tournament, in addition to two bubble teams, further highlights that equity does not conflict with performance. Instead, he encourages you.
* Texas A&M joined the SEC in 2012.