Junior Brianne Hoglin opened an email from Assistant Athletic Director Dr. Linda Garner that offered her an opportunity she could not turn down this past March.
The email explained application details for the annual NCAA Career in Sports Forum, a conference that invites just 200 student-athletes nationwide to learn about possible careers in athletic leadership.
At the time, Lipscomb had never sent any applicants to the forum. However, that did not stop Hoglin, a track and field athlete with a goal to coach a collegiate team herself, from sending in her application.
Two months later, the conference selected both Hoglin and former Lady Bisons pitcher Kelly Young, who graduated in May 2016, to attend.
“It opened my eyes to the role of a coach as a servant leader,” Hoglin said. “The reality is that most head coaches started from the bottom and rose through a serving attitude.”
On Sunday, Hoglin refreshed her thoughts from the summer’s conference at the Women in Athletics Leadership Panel at Vanderbilt’s McGugin Center.
“I was reminded of the same attitude they talked to us about: if you have a passion for something, you have to go do it,” Hoglin said. “Usually the main person standing in your way is yourself.
“It also reminded me of the depth of commitment a position in sports requires,” Hoglin continued. “It’s not always glamorous and glitzy; it’s a lot of work. But it’s fulfilling if your heart is in it.”
Vanderbilt panelists included Tennessee State University’s Athletic Director Teresa Phillips, Vanderbilt’s Deputy Athletic Director Candice Lee, Nashville Predators’ Executive Vice President Michelle Kennedy, SEC Associate Commissioner Tiffany Daniels and Ohio Valley Conference Commissioner Beth DeBauche.
Each woman shared advice about pursuing a career in the male-dominated world of athletics and information about their own experiences as prominent sports leaders.
“I want my girls to know that just because they’re females, that isn’t a reason why they shouldn’t be considered for a position,” Daniels said in regard to her daughters. “You have to go into an interview thinking that you do deserve the opportunity, and you are just as qualified as anyone else.”
Panelists said they agreed that a key to empowering women in athletic leadership is to bring up respectful young men.
“We have to teach our daughters to believe in themselves,” Lee said. “But at the same time, we need to teach our young men to value women. What we’re feeding our boys has a big impact on the success of women.”
Hoglin said that the women at the panel rekindled the fire that started last summer for becoming a female coach.
“Thinking that others might think I’m not as qualified to coach as a woman makes me want to be a coach all the more,” she said. “There are ways that my female coaches have impacted me that a male coach couldn’t and having that truth spoken into me makes me want to speak that truth into a future generation of female athletes.”
Photo courtesty of Brianne Hoglin