CCAA  encourages women to take leadership roles with teams

MICHAEL PRESTIA
SPORTS REPORTER

Of the 10 varsity teams that sport the Hawks logo, only two of them have female head coaches – Denise Perrier for the women’s basketball team and Monique Haan for the cross country team.

Perrier said that as a female coach, she offers a unique style of leadership to the women she coaches.

“More than just being a coach I think that I’m a counselor, a psychologist and a parent at times,” she said.

Perrier’s players said that women coaches might be better suited to lead women’s sports teams.

“A woman coach understands that guys and girls are different mechanically in the way they play,”  said Aycha Hamaoui, a member of Perrier’s women’s basketball team.

Sandra Murray-MacDonell, the executive director of the OCAA,  oversees the female apprentice coach program which is meant to encourge more women coaching in college sports.

A survey shows that of the 23 who have pariticpated in the four years of the  program, 39 per cent are still working as a CCAA apprentice coach, while 57 per cent of have moved on to assistant coaching roles within the CCAA.

“We’re trying to provide some positive role models and give women incentives to get into the area of coaching with their male counterparts,” said Murray-MacDonell.

Sheilagh Croxon, a consultant at the Canadian Coaching Association, said there are reasons why women have not filled the amateur coaching ranks.

“Women leaders tend to focus more on building teams through collaboration,” said Croxon,  “It’s just a different leadership style which I think in high performance is equally effective in terms of producing results.”

Croxon said the problem is not limited to sports.

“We’re trying to solve a problem that society hasn’t figured out yet,” she said.

“In all professions we see that women will step away from high intensity jobs at a certain point in time for other reasons.”

In the summer, Sport Canada published a study in the summer of 2009 with reccomendations as to how to raise women’s coaching numbers.

“More full time paid positions specifically targeted for women coaches would definitely force national sport organizations, universities, colleges, to hire more women,” said Croxon

Perrier said  it is an individual’s decision to make a commitment. “I’m not going to make any excuses because you can get active and you can get involved,” said Perrier.

“I’ve done my certification and made sure that was my personal goal.”