‘We can change the world’: Talking race as an NCAA basketball coach in 2017

On the other side of the country from Gottlieb is Hendrix and High Point. Ironically enough, Hendrix played for Gottlieb at the University of Richmond when Gottlieb was an assistant coach there. Maybe it should be unsurprising that Hendrix, like Gottlieb, jumped at the chance to talk about this topic.

“Although not always in a full team setting, I talk to my staff about engaging in dialogue with them (the players) past the superficial, even in one-on-one settings,” Hendrix said. “The thought initially stemmed from trying to figure out the heavily criticized ‘millennial generation’ and their influence amongst us all, but after deeper thoughts I have challenged myself, as well as my staff, to empower this brilliant, eager, innovative generation toward change. Before change must come education. That’s where I feel I come in”.

Hendrix is not alone in her feeling that her role as a coach is to develop her players beyond basketball. Those very same sentiments were echoed by Cullop.

“I’ve always felt like my job, in addition to coaching basketball, is to prepare our players for the future. Prepare them for life after basketball. If our staff isn’t willing to address what is going on in the world around us, I feel we are missing an opportunity to help our players grow,” Cullop said. 

While winning is ultimately what coaches are judged on, there are other metrics: academic success, graduation rates, being students in good standing off the court. Isn’t this, the covering of relevant social topics, something that should be done by the leaders of these young adults? Gottlieb thinks so.

“I am not saying you have to believe what I believe,” Gottlieb said. “What I’m saying is we have to make our players feel safe to talk about things outside of basketball that are important to them. We have to create an environment where they know about more than just pick and roll defense.  I think we are developing the next generation.

“I never, ever want a player in my program to think that they have to think what I think or have the same religion I have or have the same political beliefs. But I want them to exercise more parts of themselves than their bodies when it comes to basketball.  We are responsible for 18-to-22 year olds who go through mental and emotional stuff, and if we are shut off to that, then I don’t think we are doing our jobs.”

Speaking with another coach, the one who wished to remain anonymous, she emphasized how important it is for her to let her players know that speaking up on things is a part of life.

“I have a very diverse group of young woman and I have a responsibility to them and their parents to develop and inspire them; we want to impact and empower them,” she said. “I tell my players all the time that they have a voice and it absolutely deserves to be heard. I want our players to be educated and informed on issues and if there is something that moves them, I want them to speak on it.

“I want them to have experience in college coming into my office and having a tough conversation so that when they get in the real world and they need to go to their boss or their spouse or whoever and have a tough conversation, they have some confidence and experience being uncomfortable.”

Even when agreeing that having hard and honest conversations between a coaching staff and their players is important, there are still many challenges. One is how to even get to the point where a dialogue can happen in a healthy environment. Hendrix does it this way.

“What I incorporated this past year was what we called ‘World Changers’ events,” she said. “Once a month, we would directly tackle an issue.  The first month, it was talking about what we stand for as a nation and how that was viewed with the National Anthem debates. The second month, it was race relations on campus. Third month, we did a mock electoral debate. Fourth month, we brought in Angel Gray and discussed the generalizations and stereotyping around women’s basketball.”

Many of the topics covered by Hendrix can be filed under ‘hot button’ issues and that isn’t lost on Hendrix.

“I’ll be honest; I walk into every one of these events nervous. I realize on those days, it could go many ways,” Hendrix said. “I’d be lying if I said they weren’t heated, emotional, hard, painful at times. But they are also informing, inspiring, encouraging, and give direction and hope.  I encourage them to be completely raw, to be real, for they are amongst family.  If we can’t understand and respect differing views within our own family, how can we evoke change from complete strangers?

“I end every meeting reminding them that the emotion and passion behind our beliefs all gets lost if we don’t have the emotional intelligence, empathy, patience, and dialogue to evoke change. If our energy is rightly directed, somehow we can change the world. I truly believe that.”

543 miles northwest of Hendrix and High Point University is Cullop’s Toledo Rocket team, a program that boasts players from seven different states and seven different countries, the definition of diverse. Cullop has also made it a point to bring in a variety of people to cover different topics with her team. For her, speaking on these variety of topics isn’t only important for her players off the court, but that it also strengthens them on it as well.

“I feel it is of the utmost priority that we do as much team building as we can to bring everyone together and be focused on a common goal,” Cullop said. “I’ve always felt that when we truly understand and care about each other, we play harder for each other. It’s really hard to give everything you have to a team when you don’t see eye to eye or fully trust one another.

“In the past, we’ve brought in Sue Ramsey (retired Division II National Championship coach at Ashland), Cheryl Reeve (Head Coach of the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx), Lin Dunn (Member of the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame and current assistant at Kentucky), Stephanie Zonars (author, speaker and life coach) , Clint Longenecker (professor at UT), Molly Fletcher (CEO, speaker and sports agent), Debbie Antonelli (TV basketball analyst), John McGuire (retired Navy Seal), Tamika Catchings (former WNBA great), Truman Irving (retired local boxer); and that is just to name a few.”

Cullop also pointed out that once the semester gets going, she plans to bring someone in to discuss the racial climate we are in, something she is cognizant of when it comes to the impact on her team.

“All of the unrest in the country is frightening and alarming to our players whether they are from the US or abroad (with rejected visas in addition to the racist behavior). We have to do our best to calm their fears. We want our players to be educated on all views, respectful of differences, but we also want them to feel safe. We are proud to be on a campus where violence and racist behavior will not be tolerated.”

Remarkably, simply treating people respectfully regardless of background has become a political issue, something that isn’t lost on the coach remaining anonymous to speak on the subject.

“At the end of the day, they know each other well enough to know that their teammates are good people even if their opinions are different than theirs,” she said.  “We work on team chemistry and culture by doing different things throughout the year. We work on building that because it doesn’t just happen by itself naturally… I tell our team and I tell recruits: ‘Look, you’re going to be around a diverse group of young women, and that is an amazing thing, but it’s also going to be different for some of you. And that’s okay.'”

For these coaches, it isn’t about having the same thoughts or beliefs; it’s about dealing with reality.