The 2026 Women’s Sports Foundation report found that only 28% of youth sports teams are coached by women. To combat that statistic and empower more young girls to participate in sport, Let’s Play Boston launched the ‘She Coaches’ campaign.
According to Boston 25 News, the She Coaches campaign aims to increase the number of female coaches in youth sports. The organization believes that providing girls in sport with female coaches and role models will increase inclusivity, reduce attrition and limit implicit bias.
“The She Coaches campaign is a project of ‘Let’s Play Boston’ which is a collaborative initiative to ensure that young people have more access to youth sports,” said Jose F. Masso, Boston’s chief of human services. “Coaches are wonderful role models and having women in their life and being able to say I know how to play the sport, and I can coach you through it as well is critically important.”
One of the inaugural female coaches leading the way in Boston is Imani Pressley. Pressley works as a social worker at the Boston Latin Academy, where she coaches the track and field team. She herself is an alumna of the academy and was a successful runner on that team, but at that time, Pressley competed under a male coach. It was not until she got to college that she experienced a female coach.
“I felt she understood what it was like to be a young black girl growing up in a world that was not always nice to us,” said Pressley of that college coach. “She offered me grace that I don’t feel like anyone else would have been able to offer without that direct experience.”
Now, Pressley is hoping to share that coaching perspective with a new generation of young female athletes and encourage more women to become youth coaches through the She Coaches campaign.
Just a short time into the campaign, the City of Boston reported that 60 women have already reached out, looking for coaching opportunities. These women will join Pressley in making a positive impact in young girls throughout Boston. A new round of campaign messaging for She Coaches will begin in 2027, and officials told Boston 25 News they hope to attract even more female coaches at that time.
