Kylee Zumach

I would say having delusional confidence is key. When I got hired as head coach, it was like 3 weeks before the season started, and that was my first ever head coaching role. I kind of had to have a level of confidence where you just have to believe in yourself and make sure you're going forward 100% and trusting yourself, because you're going to be wrong sometimes. But I feel like you need to be your biggest champion. So believing in yourself, being confident, knowing and admitting when you're wrong, but putting your best foot forward and having that confidence is what's made the difference for me. I've also been really fortunate to have amazing role models and mentors. My mom has been a coach forever, and my college head coach Susie Fritz really made me confident and want to step into this field. She identified when I was a freshman that she thought I'd make a great coach, so just having really good role models kind of pushed me into that field and shaped me into the coach and person and player I am.

I would say that when you're starting out, especially if you're stepping into a head coaching role, you need to have what I like to call delusional confidence. You have to believe in yourself and make sure you're going forward 100% and trusting yourself, because you're going to be wrong sometimes. But I feel like you need to be your biggest champion, so believing in yourself, being confident, knowing and admitting when you're wrong, but putting your best foot forward and having that confidence is crucial. I also think it's really important to tap into the resources you have that might be outside of your immediate vicinity and connect with other women in the field. I feel like athletics is a space where I'm the only woman in the room a lot. Over the last year and a half, I've been the only woman head coach at our institution until we just hired a new female head coach in the cross-country position. In a lot of athletic spaces, it's a really male-dominated field, so making sure you have those resources and mentors you can tap into is essential. You're standing up for a whole population of young women that you might be coaching or might be at the university, so that confidence piece is really important.

I'd say my biggest challenge right now in my position is that I've been the only woman head coach at our institution for the last year and a half. We just hired a new female head coach in the cross-country position, but before that I was the only one. I feel like in a lot of athletic spaces, it's a really male-dominated field. So just tapping into the resources you have that might be outside of your immediate vicinity and connecting with other women in the field is really important, because I feel like athletics is a space where I'm the only woman in the room a lot. The confidence piece with that is crucial, and just knowing you're standing up for a whole population of young women that you might be coaching or might be at the university. Making sure you have those resources and mentors you can tap into has been essential for navigating these challenges.