Only WHIL woman coach Gierts hopes for more gender balance in coaching

RANCHI: As the second edition of the Women’s Hockey India League (WHIL) begins here on Sunday, all eyes will be on the SG Pipers coach Sofie Gierts, the only woman coach in the entire tournament.She already made history when she was appointed the head coach of the Royal Uccle hockey team in the Belgian men’s league in 2021, and was there till the end of this season in Sept. It was a first in Belgium and Gierts hopes to see more such instances in the coming days. “It is very important for the society that there is a woman coaching a men’s team, because it’s too unique. And if I can play a role in that and show that it’s possible, I hope more will follow,” said the former Belgian international.Gierts knows it is going to be a big challenge but believes things will change if there’s more “visibility”.“If we fill the boardrooms with more gender-balanced board members, it will change. For example, in India, if the place of a woman would change a little bit, it would change a lot. That’s why in our staff we have all female coaches,” said Gierts.“There is a lot of work FIH can do. But it’s also related to society and that’s something we cannot change overnight,” she further added.Gierts now has taken up a role with the women’s team of Mannheim Hockey Club in Germany and earlier won the Belgian women’s top-flight title in 2019 with Royal Antwerp. She was also the head coach of Belgium U18 women’s team earlier.And having worked with both the men’s and women’s teams, she believes the process of coaching is quite different.“At the end of the day, they need exactly the same – it’s just in a different order. A men’s team first wants to know what do you know about the game? And then they want to know who you are. And with the women’s team they first want to know who you are? And then what do you know about the game?” said the Belgian.Gierts, meanwhile, is more than impressed with the Indian players in the SG Pipers team, especially youngsters like Deepika, Ishika and Sunelita Toppo.“I’m a huge fan of this new generation of Indian players. I cannot stop talking about it because they show something we don’t see in the rest of the world. They have that ability to combine speed with real fine technical ability,” said the SG Pipers coach.Hopefully, they will be able to use all their abilities to put up a better show this time after finishing fourth in the last edition.