Concordia Receives "A" In Tucker Report For Women In College Coaching

MOORHEAD, Minn. (9/24/21)---The Concordia Athletic Department received an “A” grade from the University of Minnesota’s Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport’s report card for 2020-21.

Concordia was the only school in the MIAC to receive the top grade in the report. Concordia has a female head coach for 70% of its women’s sports, which is a big step above the MIAC average. The Tucker Center report shows that females held 47.2 percent of head coaching positions (60 of 127) for women’s sports within the MIAC for the 2020-21 academic year. That figure represents an increase from 38.1 percent in 2013-14.

As per the Tucker Center report, “Concordia College saw a dramatic increase going from an F (10%) in 2017-2018 to a C (50%) in 2018-2019 to now this year’s only A (70%), because their new athletic director (AD), Rachel Bergeson, capitalized on opportunities to hire women.”

“The change in hiring philosophy wasn’t just about improving our grade on the report card,” Bergeson said. “The change was about diversifying our pool of applicants, listening and understanding all of our candidates during the search process and hiring the best one for the job. Representation matters and now our numbers demonstrate that we really believe that.”

The results show that out of all the collegiate conferences studied in the Women in College Coaching Report Cards (WCCRC) series over the last eight years, the MIAC "stands alone as an exemplar," having increased its percentage of female head coaches by 9.1 percent - more than one percent per year - compared to increases of 0.1-0.3 percent by Division I conference counterparts during the same time period.

“Not every young woman aspires to be a coach or an athletic director, but what I want them to see is the ability of a woman to lead,” Bergeson added.

| Complete Tucker Center Women in College Coaching Report Card |