On Wednesday, Sept. 17, Lydia Mitchell, assistant coach of Oberlin women’s soccer, was announced as a recipient of the Women’s Sports Foundation Tara VanDerveer Fund for the Advancement of Women in Coaching.
The percentage of female head coaches in NCAA women’s sports has dropped from 90 percent in 1972 to 42 percent as of 2024. This fund is meant to help reverse that trend.
Mitchell says increasing the number of women in college coaching is extremely worthwhile.
“Representation matters, especially in sports,” she said. “It’s important to have as many diverse voices as we can … Part of the goal of the WSF is to get us back to the point … where women athletes can learn from other women and see themselves in leadership roles.”
Mitchell said that women who participate in college athletics are more likely to take risks and succeed in their careers.
Statistics in the WSF’s recent research report, Play to Lead: The Generational Impact of Sports on Women’s Leadership (2024), support this — the report found that more than two-thirds of surveyed women who played sports held leadership roles outside of the home in adulthood, and many reported learning various skills corresponding with leadership including decision-making, teamwork, problem-solving, and effective communication.
After graduating from Knox College, Mitchell spent one season coaching track and field. She didn’t realize coaching soccer was a viable path until her former soccer coach at Knox, Taylor Houck, head coach of women’s soccer at Oberlin, reached out to her.
“I felt like [coaching] wasn’t a valid option for me, that it’s not a realistic option for me to be a coach. I was a poli sci and environmental science major in college, and I thought, ‘It’s time for me to get a real job,’” Mitchell said. “There is a stigma against coaching — that it doesn’t pay well or that it’s not as valuable as other jobs when it’s incredibly valuable and an important role more people should consider.”
Houck, who Mitchell refers to as her mentor, filled out the application for the Tara VanDerveer Fund on behalf of the College, with Mitchell already selected as the prospective fellow.
The grant consists of $15,000 awarded to the honoree to use in whatever capacity they see appropriate and an additional $2,500 to use for professional development opportunities. These opportunities may include going to coaching conferences, which Mitchell has attended in the past. With this money, she and Houck are coordinating to get her D and C Coaching Licenses, which would allow her to stand out from other women’s coaching candidates in future opportunities.
Director of Athletics Communications and Game Day Operations Amanda Phillips cited Mitchell’s joy on and off the field as what makes her the ideal choice to support the next generation of women athletes in college sports.
“We are so grateful to have her on our team,” Phillips said. “We talk about being a pro and having joy in what you do, and Lydia embodies that. I can’t emphasize enough … how much every coach that interacts with her, every student athlete that interacts with her, benefits from having that moment of joy with her.”
For the rest of the regular season, Mitchell hopes to continue to train her team in “vicarious joy.”
“When your teammate has a success, when someone else on the field scores a goal, makes a big save, makes a big stop, we share that joy on the field and celebrate that moment,” Mitchell said. “That trickles into everything else we are.”
