When Ebo Hanning was 12, she was handed what felt like a devastating blow. A local baseball umpire acknowledged that she was a talented catcher, but aging out of Little League meant stepping up to a division of 13-to-15-year-old boys.
She might be the only girl on the team. She would, for the most part, ride the bench. She broke down in tears.
“He told me, ‘This isn’t the end for you,’” she recalls. “I’ve talked to the two guys you play for. They would love to have you come on as a coach.’ I looked at him and said, “I’m only 12. What makes you think these kids are going to listen to me? And he said, ‘You’re taller than all of them.’”
A Little League coaching career was born. More than three decades later she’s still at it, serving as both a coach and board member of Queen Anne Little League in Seattle, where she played. As a coach she’s known as a pitching specialist. As a board member, she’s responsible for communications and league logistics.
She’s coached numerous players who went on to high school and college ball. One, Corbin Carroll, is a two-time Major League All-Star with the Arizona Diamondbacks. Another, Sarah Lessig, plays basketball and softball for Princeton.
Yesterday, Formidable talked with Hanning, an IT specialist who works at Amazon Web Services, about how rare it is for women to coach boys in any sport. Today, we’re talking with her about the challenges and rewards as a woman coaching boys.
Edited for length and clarity.
What did you learn from that first experience? I did a lot of observing. It was pretty intimidating. Here I am, 12, 13, and it’s all middle-aged adult men I’m around. I learned in those first few years who I wanted to be and who I didn’t want to be as a coach.
Why continue to coach boys? I continue to coach baseball. Honestly, you don’t think of it as coaching boys. You’re coaching baseball. When I was 16, I was asked to move over to softball when the league launched. I tried it and I didn’t care for the group dynamic. Softball was new, and I think some of those girls were there just because their parents signed them up. It was very clear they would have preferred to have been doing just about anything else, which made coaching really not that fun. And, I’ve always had a particular emphasis on pitching and catching, which is very different in softball. So, I did that for four years and said, “I will not be coaching softball ever again.”
Do you ever think about the influence you have on these boys because they see a woman in a position of power? I hope it’s in a good way. I went to a Mariners game and saw three kids I coached. When a 14-year-old will acknowledge you in public in front of friends…I also provide mentoring through Big Brothers Big Sisters, and that is female to female. It’s been wild to see the other side of it.
Have you ever considered that you’re also a role model for girls? A lot of these boys have little sisters. There’s definitely some influence there. I always try to find out what the younger siblings are interested in.
How has coaching shaped your leadership style? I try not to have assumptions about things. I mean, we're really just all overgrown children at the end of the day, aren't we? I try to take the same tack (at work) as I do with kids by listening and figuring out if people like to joke, are they loud, are they quiet.
What advice do you have for others? No. 1, never let anybody stop you from doing something you want to do. I did have dissuaders, especially when I was younger, although I think that had more to do with my age than my gender. I definitely got talked down to when I was young, but I didn’t let it stop me. This is an unpaid position. There’s no altruism. I do it because I love baseball. I love hanging out with the kids. I love the relationships that have been built. The positives far outweigh any negatives.
Final thoughts? Find something that you're passionate about and volunteer.
