Culture: Could a woman coach a boys or mens team?

Previously, I blogged a bit about my perception of the degree to which men would follow the leadership of women in certain contexts.

On that blog post, a comment was posted! Hooray! Thanks for the interesting thoughts.

In brief, the reader proposed a scenario of how a woman might wind up coaching a boys or mens sports team.

I can't say I follow sports news to that high a degree to know if such a female coach exists. I suppose it is possible and perhaps even quite likely that such a woman might be coaching at the high school level perhaps even at a small college level in some particular sports.

I think it might be possible say, for instance, a woman who was a top star in tennis coaching a high school men's tennis team. The boys on the team might feel, wow, she played at Wimbledon!

I find it harder to envision a women who was a standout star in college basketball being able to coach a high school boys basketball team effectively. I suppose it is possible and perhaps there is a woman out there doing exactly that.

Or how about a former WNBA star coaching a college level men's team? I simply don't know.

The hard reality is that most people believe even a low-level division I men's basketball team would probably beat the best WNBA team. Thus, would the hypothetical WNBA star be able to effectively coach that D-I men's basketball team? I simply have my doubts. I suppose there might actually be such a woman doing such a thing and I say more power to her! However, my guts tells me, it would be extremely rare and quite difficult.

I think this raises a broader point in coaching and leadership: to what degree does the personal experience of the coach/leader affect the respect they command?

In the NBA, one thinks of Phil Jackson and Pat Riley as being top coaches. Both played in the NBA and had decent careers but were not superstars but they played the game and know the daily grind of the NBA life. If they had only played college basketball but never made it to the NBA, one wonders to what extent they would be successful NBA coaches? I wonder if all the current NBA coaches have had at least some NBA playing experience?

I would ask the same of college football coaches. Since most of the top players in D-I football want to make it to the NFL, I wonder if most of the top coaching staffs have had at least some NFL experience by which to draw upon as part of their resources to command respect on top of knowledge of the game?