May 19, 2015
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By Jenna Marina
UCFKnights.com
ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFKnights.com) -- They hail from California, Florida, Pennsylvania, Washington and Iowa.
They range in ages from 37 to 55.
All seven were college student-athletes and earned degrees.
Three are mothers.
Two are Olympic gold medalists.
Five have been recognized while representing the Black and Gold as the conference Coach of the Year.
These are the women who serve as head coaches at UCF.
Back in February, ESPNW highlighted a study done on the state of women's head coaches in Division I athletics. The University of Minnesota and the Alliance for Women Coaches collected data on 86 FBS athletic departments to determine which schools have the highest percentage of female head coaches of their women's teams.
UCF checked in at No. 2 with 88.9 percent with seven of its eight NCAA-sanctioned programs guided by women - not including Linda Gooch of the spirit program.
Meanwhile, most schools -- 64 of the 86 - fell between 25-40 percent.
Senior Woman Administrator Jessica Reo said UCF has always interviewed men and women for positions and are determined to find the best person for the job. It just so happens that often times, the female candidates make quite an impression.
"All other things being equal, we want to try to put women of power and experience in front of our young women to be an example," Reo said. "We want to show them they can do whatever they want to do."
These seven wonder women include: Jeanette Bolden (track and field); Becky Cramer (rowing); Renee Luers-Gillispie (softball); Emily Marron (women's golf); Stephanie Nickitas (women's tennis); Tiffany Roberts Sahaydak (women's soccer) and Joi Williams (women's basketball).
UCF isn't simply setting the bar for female coaches in women's sports. These are successful coaches of successful teams.
Since 2013-14, the members of this group have guided their respective programs to eight conference titles and five runner-up finishes. Women's Soccer, women's golf and softball all cracked into the national Top 25 rankings.
"Their results, academically and athletically, speak volumes," Reo said. "Our kids are successful and well-adjusted. They are starting careers fresh out of college. Those are things you can't really put a price tag on."
Women in a Man's World
Emily Marron's high school didn't field a girls' golf team. So she did what any resourceful young athlete would do. She became the first female to join the boys' team.
Marron practically lived on a golf course. In a town with no stop light - the nearest 30 minutes away - the Foxburg, Pa., native hopped across the street on summer days to play the nine-hole course.
"That was my playground," she said.
At Penn State, she went from a walk-on to scholarship player to team captain by her senior year. It was the first time she was surrounded by women who shared her passion for sport.
She began her coaching career shortly after graduation as Penn State's assistant coach. Although golf authority figures are typically men, Marron said her gender really has no bearing on the day-to-day challenges of her job.
"I don't ever think of myself as a female head coach. I think of myself as a head coach," she said. "I think with any coach, no matter if you are female or male, you have challenges. I think the whole job is challenging, and that's why you love it so much."
Marron feels empowered to work in an environment where she can look around the room and be inspired by her peers.
"UCF is a rare place in that," she said. "You push each other a little bit. Anytime I get a chance to listen to them or talk to them to emulate them a little bit, I try to. I think there is a lot of pride here as far as female athletics."
Full Circle
Renee Luers-Gillispie is UCF Softball. She started the program in 2002.
She knows first-hand the influence a head coach can have on athletes. Her path to becoming one of the NCAA's top 35 winningest active coaches started because of a coach during her playing days.
As a high school student in a 54-member class in Iowa, Luers-Gillispie gave no thought to attending college. Her four older brothers and sisters either married or went straight to work after high school. She imagined she would do the same.
Then one day her high school coach mentioned she could use softball as a means to a scholarship.
"He showed me that there is a whole different world out there," she said. "That's the reason I am coaching: To give these kids an opportunity to get an education. A lot of these kids wouldn't have an opportunity otherwise."
As one of UCF's longest-tenured employees, Luers-Gillspie witnessed the Knights' transformation into the burgeoning athletics program it is today.
The greatest joy she has experienced over the years is seeing things come full circle for her as a coach. Some of her former student-athletes have embarked on their own coaching careers, hoping to leave their mark on the next generation of young women.
"Sometimes in athletics we get so caught up in the winning and the `how are we going to win?' that these kids hate the sport when they leave," she said. "The best we can do as coaches is to help our athletes keep that love and that excitement of the sport that they got their education with. Help them keep that love there so that they want to give back."
Soccer Mom
In 1984, Tiffany Roberts Sahaydak was a second-grader in the San Francisco bay area. She was transfixed by Mary Lou Retton (gymnastics) and Jackie Joyner (track & field), who captured gold and silver medals, respectively, at the Los Angeles 1984 Olympics.
It was the first time she had witnessed elite female athletes compete.
"I told everyone I was going to be an Olympian," she said. "They totally inspired me from that moment."
Roberts Sahaydak joined the U.S. Women's National Soccer Team at 16 - one of the youngest in history - and spent 10 years with the Stars and Stripes. Her career was highlighted by three women's World Cups - among them, the unforgettable 1999 championship - and a gold medal with the 1996 Olympic team.
Some of her fondest memories with the national team were seeing her teammates become mothers. Joy Fawcett and Carla Overbeck balanced motherhood and their careers by bringing their children along for the ride.
Although it didn't happen during her playing days, Roberts Sahaydak now experiences that same balance as a head coach with daughters, Layla (7) and Evie (5).
The young girls hugged mom (and father Tim, associate head coach) on the field before crowd surfing above the players during the celebration of UCF's American Athletic Conference Tournament title in 2013.
"This is the most special environment to raise children, especially two young girls," she said. "They are constantly surrounded by role models. It is the norm for my kids to think that women are strong. That women go to college. That women work hard. That they are leaders. They see their mom as these things, too."
If Roberts Sahaydak didn't believe sport can shape young people, she would have quit coaching long ago.
"We are using sport to inspire and develop young people. It's as simple as that," she said. "You can get caught up in the competing and winning games and losing a recruit. You have to have a passion for all those things to do this at this level. But I try not to lose focus on what's most important. That's something that I love about UCF and Todd Stansbury in what he stands for because we're on the same page."
Breaking Down Barriers
"I can't."
It's the phrase that Jeanette Bolden despises most. So she has spent most of her life proving that she, in fact, can.
Bolden was born with severe asthma and a clubfoot, two things not usually associated with Olympic champions.
Braces eventually fixed the foot. In sixth grade, she left her home in Compton, California, and spent the next year at the Sunair Home for Asthmatic Children where they taught her to manage her asthma.
She took her sister to a park one day to a track practice. Bolden walked up to the coach, informed him of her condition, and asked if she could join the team. He said if the asthma didn't bother her, it didn't bother him.
Bolden sprinted to a UCLA scholarship. When she arrived in 1980, she had to wait outside the gate of the track and field complex until the men finished training before she and her female teammates could practice.
Her coach, legend Bob Kersee, who was also in his first year, refused to accept that. He pushed for finish lines to be painted on both sides of the track so men and women could train simultaneously.
It is because of these experiences that Bolden constantly preaches to her student-athletes that there are no barriers.
"You can do anything you set your mind to," Bolden said. "I really talk to them about setting goals and achieving goals. Learning to accomplish something."
Bolden is accomplished. She was the 2008 U.S. Olympic women's head coach and effectively became the first head coach in U.S. Olympic history to have won a medal as an athlete.
In 2004, Bolden earned the prestigious C. Vivian Stringer Award, presented to a woman who has experienced outstanding achievement as a coach. Six years later, she was inducted into the USTFCCCA Hall of Fame.
Still, she pushes.
She wants more women's head coaches instead of assistants. She wants more women's directors of track and field. In any sport, she wants a woman to break the threshold of leading a men's program.
"Title IX was years ago. We are in the door, now let's break that ceiling," she said animatedly, raising her hands. "We need a `Title X.'"