INSIDE DOUGLAS COLLEGE / FEBRUARY 5, 1991 More Women Required In Coaching Field Wirrere are all the women coaches? Many dedicated female athletes, training to improve them- selves and their game, are doing it under the leadership of men. “Female athletes at all levels need training and support from female coaches who serve as role models,” says Betty Lou Hayes, Manager of Douglas College’s Ath- letics and Intramurals Depart- ment. She’s encouraging more women to consider coaching in the college system as well as in the community sports leagues. Women tend to shy away from sport because it is male- dominated. With more women coaches, more females will par- ticipate in sports, because their douglas college LITERATURE ALIVE LESLEY-ANNE BOURNE was born in North Bay, Ontario in 1964. She studied at Banff, where she won the Bliss Carman Award for poetry, and she has a B.A. and M.F.A. in Creative Writing. Her poems have appeared in Event, Toronto Life, and other periodicals, and she has recently published her first book, The Story of Pears (Penumbra Press, 1990). She has since completed her second manuscript, which includes a sequence on the French sculptor Camille Claudel. readings by writers RICHARD LEMM was born in Seattle and came to Canada in 1967. He studied at Simon Fraser University and Queen's University, and received a Ph.D. in English from Dalhousie University. He has published three books of poetry: Dancing, in Asylum (1982), A Difficult Faith (1985), and most recently, Prelude to the Bacchanal (Ragweed, 1990). He was an instructor in the Writing Program at the Banff Centre for the Arts for many years, and is now teaching Canadian and English Literature at the University of Prince Edward Island. Tuesday, February 19th 12 Noon @ Room 3406 role models will be women. More females will reap the positive benefits of sport, such as physical fitness, social interaction, and teamwork, says Hayes. “Women are alarmingly under- represented in coaching,” she says. “At Douglas College, for ex- ample, we have no certified female coaches. At other British Columbia colleges there is an average of zero to two women coaches for every eight to ten coaches. And at the community level there is also an immediate need for female coaches.” Hayes says that the National Coaching School for Women, a week-long intensive course held annually in the late spring, is help- ing to bring more women into the coaching field. “Since this coaching school is for women only, it provides an ex- cellent environment for women to gain the skills, confidence, and cer- tification that women need to be coaches,” says Hayes. However, certification is not mandatory, according to Hayes. Women can start coaching now and receive certification later. “I know there are skilled women out there, and they should not be afraid to express an interest in coaching just because they don’t have certification yet,” says Hayes. Women are not deliberately ex- cluded from coaching, says Hayes, but they are excluded as a result of a recurring pattern. “Coaches tend to be assigned to their posi- tions by friends in the business,” says Hayes. “Women just aren't aware enough that there is a need and the demand for them, so they don’t show interest.” For more information on be- coming a coach at Douglas Col- lege or community level or to enrol in the National Coaching School for Women, please contact Betty Lou Hayes at 527-5043. All readings are co-sponsored by Douglas College and the Canada Council @ FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC @ For further information, please contact the English & Communications Dept. at 527-5465 700 Royal Avenue, New Westminister (1 block from the SkyTrain) ag)