Former USWNT Coach Jill Ellis Hints Next Manager Should Be A Woman; ESPN Puts Her Comments Through Diverse Gender Spinzone
The USWNT is in search of a new head coach after mutually parting ways with Vlatko Andonovski following the team's woeful performance in the 2023 Women's World Cup. Jill Ellis, the former USWNT coach Andonovski took over for, believes it's incredibly important for the coaching search to be "diverse."
Ellis using the buzzword 'diverse' while talking about a hiring process comes as no surprise. After all, we're living in the year 2023 and talking about a manager that would be coaching the most-liberal sports team on planet Earth.
"There's certainly good female coaches out there," Ellis told reporters on Thursday.
"So what I would hope in this process is it's robust, it's diverse, but at the end of the day, this is a critical hire ... and I think it has to be the right person."
For what it's worth, the USWNT named Twila Kilgore interim coach for the time being. Kilgore has been on record talking about the lack of coaching opportunities for women in U.S. soccer.
Jill Ellis coaches the USWNT from 2014-2019. (Photo by Ira L. Black/Corbis via Getty Images)
Ellis is 100% correct in saying that the hiring process should be robust and that this hire is critical for the USWNT to get back on the right foot. You can tell she's tip-toeing around gender with these initial comments before all but declaring 'the USWNT should hire a woman.'
USWNT Hiring Advice From Jill Ellis
"We need to make sure we're creating and providing opportunities for women," Ellis said. "But not just giving them the opportunities, making sure they're supported and they're educated and they're ready to take those responsibilities and those opportunities," Ellis continued.
"So I think it's a critical hire. It's got to be the right coach for this position. But in terms of gender, what we know is that in the last however many major tournaments, I think women have done all right."
It doesn't take much reading between the lines to conclude that Ellis wants a woman back on the sideline coaching the national team, which is a totally normal, fine opinion. Women's national teams coached by women have won all but one of the major international trophies since 2000.
ESPN didn't interpret Ellis' comments that way, however, it clearly saw the words "diverse" and "gender" and published a Reuters story with the title 'USWNT needs best coach regardless of gender,' which is something Ellis never actually said.
In reality, Ellis saying the coaching search needs to be "diverse" is her saying female coaching candidates need to be a top priority, which is completely fair.
ESPN running its spin zone on the story and not clamoring for a woman to take over the team could be the surprise of 2023.