Tara's coaching tree

The topic of yesterday's Forum on KQED was "Challenges Persist for Women in Coaching" (Click here for the podcast).

The percentage of women coaching women's collegiate teams is at an all time low, down from more than 90% in the early 1970s to about 40%; the number of women assistant coaches is now less than 50%.

The panel explored the reasons women are leaving the coaching profession and what can be done to keep them in the game.

Tara was one of the guests on the panel. She thinks that a lot of women believe they need men on their staff. She’s not one of them. In her 31 years of coaching at Stanford, all of her assistant coaches have been women. She said, “I’ve hired women to mentor them and a lot of them have gone on [in the profession].”

Tara’s coaching tree is flourishing. These are her former assistant coaches and students who are currently women's/girls' basketball coaches or professional basketball executives.

	Charli Turner Thorne (1984-88), head coach at Arizona State, 19th season.
	June Daugherty (asst coach 1985-89), head coach at Washington State, ninth season.
	Jennifer Azzi (1986-90), head coach at the University of San Francisco, sixth season.
	Katy Steding (1986-90), head coach at Boston University, second season.
	Angela Taylor (1989-93, asst coach 1995-97), President and General Manager of the WNBA Atlantic Dream, tenth year with WNBA
	Renee Brown (asst coach 1989-90), WNBA Chief of Basketball Operations and Player Relations, 20th year with WNBA
	Molly Goodenbour (1989-93), head coach at Cal State Dominguez Hills, third season.
	Kate Paye (1991-95), assistant coach at Stanford, ninth season.
	Bobbie Kelsey (1991-96, asst coach 2007-11), head coach at the University of Wisconsin, fourth season.
	Amy Wustefeld Brooks (1992-96), WNBA Executive Vice President, Team Marketing & Business Operations, 11th year with WNBA
	Charmin Smith (1993-97, asst coach 2004-07), associate head coach at Cal, seventh season at Cal.
	Vanessa Nygaard (1993-98), Senior Associate Athletic Director and Girls' Basketball Program Lead at Windward School in Los Angeles, seventh season at Windward.
	Milena Flores (1996-2000), assistant coach at Princeton, ninth season.
	Karen Middleton (asst coach 1997-2007), associate head coach at Cal State Fullerton, first season
	Tia Jackson (asst coach 1999-2000), assistant coach at University of Miami, first season
	Jamie Carey (1999-2002), assistant coach at the University of Colorado, second season.
	Nicole Powell (2000-04), assistant coach at the University of Oregon, second season.
	Markisha Coleman (2003-07), head coach at Menlo-Atherton High School, second season.
	Melanie Murphy (2006-11), head coach at Sacred Heart Prep in Atherton, second season.
	Lindy La Rocque (2008-12), assistant coach at Belmont University in Nashville,TN, first season.
	Trina Patterson (asst coach 2011-13), assistant coach at Old Dominion, third season.