A 3-year-old Xia Nesbitt reaches for the ballet barre, looking at herself in the mirror of a ballet classroom at the Chicago Multi-Cultural Dance Center. Dressed in her white tights and pink leotard, she glances around the room nervously. Suddenly, a group of female dancers, some high school assistants and some adult coaches, enter the room. Xia looks up and smiles.
“I’m looking at myself in their mirror while they’re helping me out. Just looking into the mirror and seeing someone, it almost felt like I was looking at myself,” Xia said.
For many female athletes at U-High, having a female coach means much more than just seeing a face during practice: She provides a role model, someone to confide in and someone who challenges gender stereotypes.
Xia, now a senior varsity tennis player and sprinter on the track and field team, believes her female coaches provide an inspiring example that femininity and athleticism are not mutually exclusive.
“With the example of female coaches, an athlete can still be girly, an athlete can still have her femininity while also being a total beast,” Xia said.
For Nicole Petersen, P.E. teacher and dance team coach, that balance is intentional. Growing up with female coaches herself, she now tries to model both strength and empathy for her athletes.
“I think being a female coach helps with the empathy side of things, but also that women can be empathetic but also stern and strict,” Ms. Petersen said. “My team knows that I’m obviously very caring and I love all of them, but they also know that I am very much like, ‘We’re at practice now.’”
After coaching women’s soccer at the University of Illinois Chicago, Juliana Zavala, athletics director, has seen the impact of female role models, and she believes that coaching is an opportunity to expand young female athletes’ vision of their own futures.
“That was impactful when a family came up to me and told me ‘I feel like I could do what you’re doing in your role in the future,’” Ms. Zavala said. “They committed to play at UIC women’s soccer. To me, that was impactful when I realized that my role and what I do makes a big impact.”
Beyond challenging stereotypes, athletes say same-gender coaches offer a unique level of understanding. Ninth grader Layla Prochaska, a varsity and club volleyball player, has seen her female coaches as especially empathetic.
“I think they know what it’s like to be a young girl, and I think that’s like what makes it better,” Layla said. “They can understand where you’re coming from whenever you have a problem or something’s going wrong.”
When Layla tore her ACL in March 2025 and then her meniscus in February 2026, having a female coach who played the role of both friend and coach made her feel supported.
“I just felt closer and they gave me a hug and just supported me through that,” Layla said.
Research reflects U-High athletes’ experiences. A study published in Sex Roles, an academic journal publishing research on gender, found that same-gender role models can represent a future self. At U-High, out of the 10 sports open to girls, five have female head coaches.
From a 3-year-old at the barre to a high school student recovering from an injury, female coaches continue to shape how female athletes see themselves and their futures.
“They’re good examples and role models, and it shows that like being a female athlete, you can end up being a coach one day,” Layla said, “and it shows how important it is to be a female athlete and just an athlete in general.”
