For Jenny Boucek, the head coach of the Seattle Storm, it has not only been about wanting to be a coach. It has been about using her platform as one to bring about positive change in women’s basketball as well as in sports in general.
Boucek recently was a guest on the “Inspired by Her” podcast that is hosted by Mandy Close Kavanaugh. She said her desire to want to bring about change came from when she entered the WNBA as a player.
Her career was cut short due to injuries and she said the league’s inaugural season rubbed her the wrong way.
It was so much the antithesis of what I believe sports should be that that was another thing that made me passionate about wanting to become a coach and possibly becoming an agent of change to create an environment of what, I believe, sports should be and what a team should be.
Boucek believed that combination of no guaranteed contracts and players with different agendas made for toxic locker rooms—and that was one of the elements that played into her pursuing a career as a coach.
She also feels the WNBA does not get enough support from coaches at lower tiers and referenced how girls basketball players grow up playing the game, but not watching WNBA or women’s college basketball.
I went and spoke to a group of girls in Portland this past weekend, and most of them have never seen a WNBA game. They’re playing girls basketball, they’re in fifth grade. And they’re just not being told. They’re not being talked about. They know the NBA teams. They know the NBA guys.
She also talked about how players coming in from college have scant knowledge of WNBA players and how watching WNBA tape instead of NBA tape can help the development of college players.
Prior to coaching Sue Bird and Breanna Stewart in Seattle, Boucek had a short stint with the Sacramento Monarchs where she only coached for two-plus years prior to being fired. She told Kavanaugh this allowed her to rediscover her “agent of change” mentality which was a key catalyst for her entering the coaching ranks.
Before I decided to come back and see if this was something I wanted to do again, I had to get very clear on not being afraid to get fired.
By: Akiem Bailum (@AkiemBailum on Twitter, Instagram)
