A youth sports coaching program created with Nike’s backing defines “girls” broadly enough to include males who identify as girls, according to a former coach who spent months reviewing its materials and says the definition undercuts the program’s stated purpose of keeping girls in sports.
CoachingHER launched in 2023 as a joint effort between Nike and the Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport at the University of Minnesota. Nike described it as a free digital resource meant to help coaches recognize unconscious gender bias affecting girls in athletics.
Sarah Barker, a former coach and creator of The Female Category, encountered the program through the Minnesota State High School League and completed its training modules herself before interviewing the program’s director. She told OutKick her findings don’t match how the program is marketed to coaches.
“Everything about it tells me that it is not, in fact, what it is being sold as,” Barker said.
The Definition at Issue
CoachingHER’s current FAQ defines a “girl” as anyone under 18 “who was assigned female at birth or who identifies as a girl,” and states the program is “inclusive of gender-expansive identities.” Barker said this language was more prominently displayed when she began her review in 2024.
The program’s website promises “girl-centered strategies” and tools for building “supportive, inclusive environments for girls in sports.” Barker pointed to one training module that instructs coaches to accept “ALL bodies and identities,” with “all” capitalized in the material.
A Mismatch With the Research, Barker Says
Barker’s central criticism is that CoachingHER’s focus on coaches’ gender bias doesn’t line up with the program’s own cited research on why girls actually quit sports. A CoachingHER article citing 2024 Dove and Nike research identifies low body confidence as the
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