When Angela Bianco sat down to watch a Matoska International Elementary School basketball game, she unknowingly kicked off a ripple effect that would change both her life and the lives of many young girls. Angela, a fourth grade teacher at Matoska attending the game to support her students, happened to take a seat beside Kathleen Cannon, the executive director of Girls on the Run Minnesota. As they spectated, they struck up a conversation first about basketball, but the conversation slowly turned to the topic of Girls on the Run.

“You should get Girls on the Run,” Kathleen told Angela, who replied that several of her coworkers at Matoska had already been working hard to bring the program to their students. Sure enough, Matoska began its team the next season with Angela on the coaching staff. 

Matoska, a school rich in diversity, yielded GOTR participants of many cultural backgrounds, which gave Angela – a person of color herself – a unique way to connect with the girls on the team. 

Coach Angela smiles at the GOTR 5K with her co-coaches

Growing up in western South Dakota, Angela’s childhood and adolescent activities lacked diversity – she never experienced coaching from a person of color, and even female coaches were a rarity. As a GOTR coach, she knew that she could be the role model she’d never had. 

“It was just another opportunity for me to be present in a place where girls look like me and I look like them,” she said. “Or even if we don’t necessarily look like each other, we have similar walks of life.” 

Angela, who grew up moving in and out of foster care, found that her unique life experiences helped her connect to some girls going through similar things in a way that coaches without her past couldn’t. 

“Sometimes, when girls have found [her family history] out, it opens up a different level of conversation… they weren’t as guarded about their family,” she said. “It’s just important to have a variety, a diversity of coaches from different backgrounds.” 

Angela’s relatability stemming from her cultural background and childhood experiences built trust with participants, who then felt free to share more personal information about their lives with her. One participant opened up about a family member’s incarceration and how it was impacting her life. 

“We would take laps and she would just share all of this, and I think her knowing like, ‘I’m not going to be judged because my family doesn’t look a certain way’ helped us just have more honest conversations,” Angela said. “She wasn’t closed off to other relationships, but it was nice that she had somebody she could share that with.” 

Coach Angela volunteering at a recent GOTR 5K as a member of Team Adelaide, a crew of experienced coaches who support programming

Fellow coach of color Makara Fairman experienced similar relationships after starting a GOTR site at Indian Mounds Elementary School, another school filled with diverse students of all backgrounds. Makara quickly realized how important it was to have a coach of color on a team and wanted to be someone the girls could relate to.

“I could really see that I might be one of the only people that they see – besides family – that looks somewhat maybe like them,” she said. “I think it just helped me connect a little bit deeper because sometimes you can see it like, ‘Oh, if she can do this, I can do this.’” 

Like Angela, Makara noted that she’d also never experienced coaching by a person of color in her youth, which she said makes it all the more important to be that person for the girls on her team. 

“There was never [a coach] that looked like me, or even any of color for that matter,” she said. “I grew up a lot as ‘the only’ in the room.” 

Coach Makara poses with one of the members of her Girls on the Run team at a GOTR 5K

Makara’s experience as ‘the only’ diverse person on teams or in classrooms involved coaches and teachers mispronouncing or hesitating to say her name. Now, as a GOTR coach, she goes above and beyond to ensure that she learns every girl’s name and says it correctly. 

“For me, it’s always really important [to get names right],” she said. “Even if it’s like, ‘Say that again for me?’ or “[Would you] spell it?’ or whatever it is for the girl, I think it’s important that we get their name right.” 

Both Makara and Angela stressed the impact that having a coach who looks like the diverse participants can have on their overall experience. Angela said that she thinks her experience as a young girl would’ve been better and less stressful if she hadn’t been ‘the only.’

“I think I would’ve felt less pressure to be the only one… because of that, I was probably a little more guarded,” she said. “I’m hoping that this is not the experience of a participant now. Your shoulders can relax a little bit more because you understand that somebody shares your perspective or has a little more understanding of the nuances.” 

Makara added that the connections and relationships built between participants and coaches of color are invaluable. 

“It’s so hard to measure what it means to the girls to see someone who looks like them,” she said. “That is just priceless, and there’s nothing like that. 

She also urged more people of color to step into coaching roles and become the role models they might have lacked in their own childhood. 

“Show up for yourself, your community, your family… the simple act of showing up can have a ripple effect,” Makara said. “You never know what change you’re going to make.”

Find more details on coaching and sign up to volunteer here.

Coach Makara poses with four members of the Indian Mounds GOTR team at the Limitless Potential Luncheon, where they spoke on a panel about their experience in Girls on the Run