Tamara Moore, First African American Female, to Coach a College Men’s Basketball Team
A short story about rising to be the creme of the crop.
Tamara Moore made history by becoming the first African American female basketball player to coach a college men’s basketball team at Iron Range college. She has knocked down a door that will allow others equally capable females to do the same. Her accomplishment is a double compliment being the first to coach a male basketball team and blazing a new path at Iron Range college.
She has always aspired to be a trailblazer and this is another notch on her trailblazing belt. In 1998, she was named the first African American Ms. Basketball in Minnesota during her senior year at Minneapolis North Community High School.
Note, since there was no game for girls, she bravely played in the Minneapolis inner-city all-star classic game for boys. With the Minnesota Lynx, she coached a semi-pro men’s team and founded a new men’s minor basketball league. Moore always charted her path with great precision and tenacity.
Therefore it was befitting and practically karmic to trailblazing another path. Moore, 41, most recently blazed another trail at Iron Range College being the first African American and one of only three women being the head coach of a men’s college basketball program.
As coaching is in her blood, she coached Edison High School in Minneapolis, Minnesota’s girls’ basketball and volleyball teams. Her visibility led to her being advised by her guidance counselor from high school of this men’s coaching position, she applied and got the job. No surprise here.
While her team has not won a lot of their games, and the season looked bleak but their new path is highly visible and recognized. During recent games, Moore was seen coaching with strong intentions as the team hung on her every word. During one game, she was out of her seat for the entire first half of the game, as she called our instructions and encouragement. There is no doubting her commitment to the sport and her team.
Moore not only enjoys coaching the players but is instrumental in keeping them from falling into becoming a statistic given the state of police brutality against Black men. She has recruited student-athletes from around the country.
She has arrested a stereotype that women don’t have the intelligence to coach a men’s team and could not gain the respect of the players. Her track record in the WNBA, aspire many of the players. She has mastered how to be seen as a coach and not a female coach. Now, the rest is history as they all go onward and upward.
You would her hands were full with coaching, but she has found the time to serve as the school’s softball coach and housing director. For two years she will remain with her team, after that she aims to make more history.
In conclusion, kudos to Tamara Moore for making a difference in so many lives, leading the way, and being a trailblazer for others to follow.
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