UCF Earns A in Hiring Female Coaches

ORLANDO (UCFKnights.com) – For the sixth straight year, UCF received an "A" grade in hiring female coaches, based on the latest report card from the Tucker Center and WeCOACH.
 
The annual study, now in its eighth year, is presented by Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport at the University of Minnesota — the first research center of its kind in the world — and WeCOACH, the premier organization dedicated to the recruitment, advancement, and retention of women coaches of all sports at all levels.
 
UCF has earned an A in each of the six years it has been evaluated. With six women head coaches, UCF, on a percentage basis, was ranked behind only Cincinnati, with Washington and Oklahoma the only other schools receiving "A" grades.
 
The UCF head coaches have also led their respective teams to success in their fields of competition.
 
Women's soccer head coach Tiffany Roberts Sahaydak, a three-time American Athletic Conference Coach of the Year, has guided her program to four league titles and four NCAA Tournament bids.
 
The women's basketball team has compiled four consecutive 20-win seasons under head coach Katie Abrahamson-Henderson and was poised to make a fourth-straight postseason berth before the COVID-19 outbreak.
 
Women's golf head coach Emily Marron has guided her program to a pair of American Athletic Conference titles while earning Coach of the Year honors twice. Her 2019 squad advanced to the NCAA Championship for just the second time in program history.
 
Head coach Becky Cramer has seen her rowing program claim The American Championship in each of the last five years. In 2019, the Varsity Four became the first UCF boat to post a Top 15 finish at the NCAA Championships. As a team, Cramer's squad posted its fifth-straight Top 20 finish at NCAAs, matching its best team finish of 18th overall.
 
Entering her second year, softball head coach Cindy Ball-Malone's team appeared to be on track for a historic season. The Knights were ranked in both major polls, while earning the highest RPI in program history at No. 7 in the nation.
 
Head cross country and track and field coach Dana Boone guided her 4x1 squad to Second Team All-America honors with a 14th place finish at the 2019 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championship in her first season at the helm. In the fall, the Knights captured the UCF Cross Country Invitational title.
 
The study does not include the spirit program, which captured its third national title in January under head coach Linda Gooch.
 
The 2019-20 dataset indicates the percentage of women head coaches in seven select NCAA Division I conferences went up for the seventh year in-a-row and is now at 42.3% (up from 41.8% in 2018-19).
 
Every year, the Tucker Center and WeCOACH release the report card and assigns grades to institutions based on the percentage of women's head coaches of women's teams in seven leagues, the American Athletic Conference, Atlantic Coast Conference, Big East Conference, Big Ten Conference, Big 12 Conference, Pac-12 Conference and the Southeastern Conference.