'Mom coach' tackles sexism while leading Arlington Heights football team

At a youth football coaches clinic this summer, one of the male organizers approached Tim and Bridget Schank.

He looked right past Bridget and introduced himself to Tim, shaking his hand and asking about his team.

“Actually, she's the head coach,” Tim said, pointing to his wife.

The man smiled at Bridget and said, “Oh, good for you!”

“It was so patronizing,” Bridget said, “but I don't care. I don't back down from it for a second.”

It comes with the territory for Bridget Schank, the first female head coach of an Arlington Cowboys boys football team in the organization's 52-year history. She coaches a second-grade boys flag football team.

Schank, of Arlington Heights, is part of a slow but steady nationwide trend in which more women are coaching men's and boys' football - one of the few sports that remains heavily male-dominated.

“It's even more rare than other sports,” said Megan Kahn, executive director of the Alliance of Women Coaches. “It's very hard for a woman to break in when she has little experience playing organized football.”

Yet women are breaking in. This fall, for the first time in each state's history, Florida and Maryland have women as head coaches of boys high school football teams.

There are no female head coaches in Illinois high schools, according to the IHSA, and none at the college level anywhere in the United States, Kahn said.

In the NFL, the Arizona Cardinals had a female coach intern last season, and this year, the Buffalo Bills hired the NFL's first full-time female coach. The league also hired its first female official last year.

The NFL is actively recruiting women for jobs, including coaching. In January, it will host a career forum specifically for women during Pro Bowl week in Orlando.

Schank says she didn't set out to be a trailblazer. She was just helping fill a coaching void on her son's team. Even though she knows the game inside and out - she played flag football at Montini Catholic High School, the University of Notre Dame and on league teams after college - she still worried that men would question her ability to coach boys.

“Suburban football is intense. And it attracts guys who really, really love football and really see football as a guy thing,” she said. “But I decided I'm tired of bringing snacks to things. All moms get to do is show up and bring snacks and take care of the kids on the sidelines, and the dads get to do all the coaching. ... I want to coach!”

Jay Cherwin, commissioner of Arlington Cowboys flag football, admits that he and the other commissioners were a bit skeptical when Schank first volunteered, figuring she was just a well-intending mom who didn't know much about the game. But after meeting Schank and learning of her credentials and passion for coaching kids, they agreed she was well-qualified to coach the boys.

“Certainly, in football, it's not something you're used to seeing,” Cherwin said. “But Bridget is doing a great job. I love her passion ... and I haven't heard any blowback from it at all.”

Schank says the only sexism she's experienced has been “very, very subtle,” but it's definitely there. She knows not everyone is thrilled with having a woman coach their boys in this manly sport, and dads on the sidelines regularly question her decision-making. Sometimes she'll overhear someone say, “Is she the coach?”

But their skepticism usually disappears once they see her in action. Not only does she teach the game well, but she emphasizes teamwork and good character. One of her inspirations is Notre Dame's “Play like a champion today” mantra.

Schank has three male assistant coaches, including her husband, Tim, the offensive coordinator. Tim said he could have been the head coach but he works downtown, making it difficult to get to practices. Besides, Bridget wanted to do it more than he did and has a better personality for it, he said.

“She is 100 percent in charge,” Tim Schank said. “She sets the tone, she sets the agenda. I'll say, here are my ideas. You pick the one you want, and I'll design the offense accordingly.”

Schank laughs thinking about the first meeting with her two other male assistant coaches, who nicely told her that football is a tough game and she needs to be firm with the kids and “not be a preschool teacher with them.”

“Then, after the first practice, they were like, 'Yep, she's got this,'” Bridget said.

While the team dads are accepting, it's the team moms who are her biggest fans.

“I get a lot of 'You go girl!'” Schank said. “This is pretty awesome that these boys are able to see a mom in a different role.”

The other male-coached teams try extra hard to beat Schank's team, not wanting to lose to “the mom coach,” she said.

Perhaps the biggest sign of acceptance is when the team poured a cooler full of water over her head, after they beat a tough team.

“When you see her in action, she is a football coach,” Tim Schank said. “Any kid would be lucky to be coached by her.”