“The obligation that we all have as leader in sports is to lift as we rise.”
Vanessa Fuchs is a leader with more than 20 years of experience in athletic administration, joining WeCOACH as Chief Executive Officer in March 2022 following more than a decade at Florida State University serving in various important leadership roles including Senior Associate Athletics Director and Senior Woman Administrator.
During her time at FSU, Vanessa was named the 2015 Women Leaders in College Sports Division I Administrator of the Year and an FSU Champion Beyond the Game honoree in 2016. She was also instrumental in providing strategic direction for departmental initiatives focused on student-athlete welfare, enhancing athletic performance, fundraising and revenue generation, gender equity, and diversity and inclusion.
Bringing her breadth of experience and proven ability in developing and leading initiatives, in just one year, she has transformed WeCOACH, reinvigorating existing programs like the NCAA Women Coaches Academy and Academy 2.0, and introducing a number of new initiatives.
Now like Vanessa, we believe that results and impact matters, and her tireless dedication has seen WeCOACH quadruple their highest memberships number to 8,300 in a year. The Academies also held their biggest to date in May of this year coinciding with the 20th Anniversary of the first graduating class in 2003, and we wanted to take the opportunity to celebrate Vanessa’s first year at the helm and the phenomenal progress she has made for the organization.
We also thought it important to mention that she has been able to do this by building on the incredible work done by previous leaders of WeCOACH over the last two decades, and leading into this year’s academies Vanessa shared,
“We are very excited to commemorate 20 years and 51 WCA classes that includes over 2,100 graduates. This will give us an opportunity to celebrate the progress women have made in coaching, and an opportunity to strategize on the work that still needs to be done to empower women to pursue, stay in, and succeed in the coaching profession.”
In addition to their more than 300% increase in all-time highest membership numbers and more than doubled class sizes for this year’s Academies to meet their community’s demand, Vanessa shared that the all new team of WeCOACH staff who work tirelessly to advance their mission, have increased critical grant funding dollars bi-fold, and thanks to generous donors and partners, have multiplied the NCAA Women Coaches Academy Scholarship funding by seven times awarding over $35,000 in scholarships to defray out of pocket expenses for their 2023 Academy class.
She also highlighted two new programs, “This year we launched the Divisions II and III Development Program with 42 conferences impacting over 4,200 coaches; and Catch a Vision, our Aspiring Women Coaches Workshop helping us actively recruit women coaches to the profession to build a diverse pipeline of future leaders in sport.”
As a well-established leader in her own right, Vanessa became the first woman to lead the Florida State Seminoles’ Athletic Department as interim Athletic Director in 2013, and offers her valuable perspective on moving the numbers on female leadership and coaching and the highlights significance of providing mentorship opportunities, adding, “I’m a member of an organization called Women Leaders in College Sports, and we emphasize the importance and the obligation that we all have as a leader in sports is to lift as we rise.”
“I mentioned this concept of lift as we rise and kind of pulling up that next generation of leaders. I believe it’s really important that if someone reaches out to me and says, ‘Hey, I’d love to just take a little bit of your time.’ I view those as some informal mentoring opportunities, whether it’s a student-athlete, a coach, or a young professional looking for some career advice, I have always prioritized and never not made the time to meet with that individual.
I think it’s just so important that we make that time if someone is willing to ask, because not everybody is willing to ask, and I think that actually sets individuals apart if you are proactive to reach out and try to establish those relationships.”
WeCOACH hosts several professional growth and leadership development programs year-round, and given Vanessa’s own experience, we wanted to highlight their uniquely structured and research-founded Mentor Program, currently in its fifth year. Preceding data found that women coaches tend to drop out of the profession between years seven and 10 (ages 26 to 33 on average), and Vanessa shared that those developing the program took that information and decided to set up a formal mentoring program. Taking a trio-grouped approach, coaches partnered as bronze, silver, and gold.
Vanessa added,
“The silver individual in the trio is the critical focus for the program being within that data-driven timeframe of six to 10 years’ experience in coaching. So they’re getting mentored by the gold while they’re also mentoring the bronze.”
Reflecting on the ongoing impact of the program, Vanessa highlighted,
“We hear often from our community that they remain in touch for years to come with coaches or administrators they met in the program. I really believe that it’s powerful when you have this level of support, and many times coaches are paired with others from different sports. So there’s some powerful relationships that develop and are sustained, so it expands their network into other sports as well.”
Now reflecting on her experience in a variety of leadership roles over the last two decades, we asked Vanessa what her biggest leadership learning has been,
“The work we do everyday is centered on impacting people. The student-athletes, the coaches, they are our why. They are why we all have jobs and they must remain at the center of every decision we make as leaders in sport. Yes, we must remain lifelong learners, but if you master the human aspect, you will enjoy a long and successful career impacting others.”
And after a phenomenal first year, we were keen to look towards the future of WeCOACH with Vanessa. She shared,
“We are incredibly proud that data demonstrates our Academies and programs help retain women coaches at a rate higher than the national average. We also have a new apprenticeship program, that we’re about to announce to help with pouring into women coaches from underserved communities, we’re really excited to get that underway here in 2023-24 as well.
And of course, our members remain the heartbeat of our why and the center of every decision we make, so we look forward to continuing to impact people and impact history together.”
Where to from here?
To add additional value to their members, WeCOACH now offer the Member Benefits Partners Program, which Athlete Assessments is proud to be a part of, providing countless resources and discounted services from over 30+ different experts, consultants, and speakers.
If you would like to learn more about how Athlete Assessments has been working with WeCOACH for over a decade, or discuss how we can contribute to your leadership development, please contact us.
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