The University of Minnesota’s Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport released its 13th annual Women in College Coaching Report Card over the summer. Swimming was one of seven sports tracked by the Center that improved its grade from the center, which is based on the percentage of women head coaches of women’s teams in the ‘Select Seven’ conferences.
In the 2024-2025 season, 29.2% of women’s swimming teams were head coached by women, which grades the sport as a “D” on the Center’s traditional A through F scale. A season prior, swimming received an “F” with just 23.9% of women’s programs in the measured sample being led by women head coaches.
The ‘Select Seven” includes the American Athletic Conference, ACC, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, SEC, and the Pac-12, which lost most of its programs at the conclusion of the measured season. The conferences include 94 schools and 65 women’s swimming & diving programs.
The premise of the report, which is released annually, is to measure the number of women who are head coaches of women’s teams. From the Center’s report:
What we want to emphasize is the underrepresentation of women is not the problem, it is a symptom of the problem. The real problem is a culture, both societal and within sport, that does not value or support women or give them the opportunities they deserve.
The report has measured a steady increase in women who lead women’s programs since 2021. That has come after a period of stagnation where the number was about 41-42% for most of the 2010s. That number has now risen to 47.7%.
The range of percentages range from 100% for acrobatics & tumbling and wrestling to just 10% of fencing coaches. Fencing, like swimming & diving, often share head coaches between men’s and women’s programs.
Diving still received an “F” rating with just 13.1% of head diving coaches of women’s programs being women. Diving coaches are almost always shared between men’s and women’s programs. Other sports that received “F” grades similarly share head coaches: cross country (20.2%) and track & field (17.4%).
The highest percentage among sports with at least 25 programs in the sample is lacrosse, which had 97.1% of women’s programs led by women. Field Hockey (87%, less than 25 institutions); softball (79.7%), Equestrian (75%, less than 15 institutions), and golf (74.4%) also received “A” grades.
The Center also evaluates grades at the conference and institution levels. Of the nine universities that received “A” grades, five have swimming & diving programs. Of those, three have female head coaches (Cincinnati/Mandy Commons-DiSalle, Penn State/Hollie Bonewit-Cron, and UCLA/Jordan Wolfrum) and two have male head coaches (Michigan and Cal).
The SEC and Big 12 continue to rank low as conferences, with the Big Ten leading the way.
Among the new women coaches hired last season was 12-time Olympic medalist Dara Torres at Boston College. Other hires included Tamber McAllister at BYU (replacing another woman), Blaire Bachman at Texas A&M (replacing a man), and Hollie Bonewit-Cron at Penn State (replacing a man).
I’d be curious how many AD or Assistant ADs are women. Change at the management level typically leads to natural change or progression at the professional level.
I would be interested in seeing the stats from all Divisions and NAIA…wonder if they track that?
If they do, they don’t publish it. That would take quite a bit of funding to pull off (speaking as someone who has considered “all divisions” projects in the past).
Maybe something in the future that AI could help with.
But how many are actually doing a “good” job?
Or is this just more efforts to force DEI down our throats?
That’s an interesting question. Define “good” job, and then let’s apply the standard to both male and female coaches, and we can see how it turns out. Boston College certainly got better last season after hiring a woman coach.
I think what op is getting at is that everyone not doing a “good” job is not doing a “good” job because of their gender and should be replaced by a member of the opposite gender.
Which…I don’t think is going to turn out the way he’s hoping it will.
I appreciate the open opportunity to further discuss this thought as well as the assumptions placed on my motives and gender identity.
As much as conference/NCAA points and placement drive our opinions of coaches and teams; what if there was a deeper dive into 4 year rate of progression and percentage from either the NCAA records or percentage from or better than the new NCAA standards, for the 3rd fastest swimmer on each roster. This not only would show program growth with the ability to negate some “amazing” or “terrible” seasons by individuals, it would also show depth that is needed to win dual, conference and NCAA meets using a metric already applied to the sport.
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“It seems there is an easier path for some than others” are you referring to white men? We’re referring to white men, right? Please for the love of god assure me that this sentence is referring to white men.
Any conversation around DEI that starts with “women and minorities have an easier path than others” is really and truly a dumb conversation. Whether you agree or disagree with DEI programs, at least the conversation should start with honesty.
In swim world…. the coaching could not be more white male centric.
This report doesn’t even consider Men’s teams…. only 1/3 women’s teams are coached by a woman. It’s a staggering number.
I’m not sure why this is getting so many down votes. Men coach women’s programs but the same can not be said for women over men’s only programs. To your point as I understand it, the data was analyzed for women’s programs.
I’m glad to see improvement in the sport, but is it a trend or a blip in the data?
you said a whole bunch of words to try and cover up for how dumb they are
you don’t even know what DEI is