GREENVILLE, S.C. | The NCAA Women’s College Basketball Tournament is moving past the Elite Eight stage to the Final Four, with the No. 1 seed, the defending national champion South Carolina Gamecocks vanquishing the No. 2 Maryland Terrapins, 86 to 75 at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena March 27.
Also Monday night, the No. 1 Virginia Tech Hokies defeated the No. 3 Ohio State Buckeyes at Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena, 84 to 74. For the first time in the university’s history, the Hokies will go on to the Final Four. On Friday in Dallas, they’ll face the LSU Tigers, who defeated out head coach Katie Meier’s University of Miami Hurricanes on Sunday.
Beyond the baskets, the scoreboard and the sweat that goes into these climactic games, are three other out LGBTQ+ coaches leading these outstanding student-athletes.
Although Maryland fell short, Kaitlynn Fratz has a lot to be proud of as an assistant coach with the Terrapins who is out and proud on Instagram.
Having beaten Maryland, the Gamecocks will also be in Dallas on Friday as South Carolina earned its fifth trip to the Final Four. Following the Hokies vs. Tigers game, they’ll be going head to head with the Iowa Hawkeyes, playing their first Final Four in three decades.
Raina Harmon is an assistant coach with Iowa who shares Instagram posts about her marriage to her wife, including their 2020 honeymoon.
Another assistant coach for Iowa, Jan Jansen, has been with her partner Julie Fitzpatrick since 2009.
The headlines in mainstream sports sites like Sports Illustrated may focus on the fact that this was the first Elite Eight in decades without the traditional teams of UConn, Tennessee or Stanford. But gay, lesbian, bi and transgender sports fans are celebrating that these three women are not alone; They’re among 57 out LGBTQ+ coaches in college basketball, with at least 20 players who also identify as queer, according to the LGBTQ+ sports site Outsports.
We’ll see who survives the Final Four on Friday in Dallas.
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