Montrose Basketball Coach Tracie McComb: Leading with Meditation

In a small corner of Susquehanna County, basketball practice takes a unique turn with a focus on mindfulness.

Leading the Montrose Meteors boys basketball team, Coach Tracie McComb is not only making history as the first female varsity coach in the Lackawanna League but also pioneering a new approach to training.

“When you are breathing, I want you to think about what kind of practice you’re going to have today, the kind of teammate you want to be, how you want to game plan and get ready for tomorrow,” McComb tells her players as they lie on the gym floor, setting the tone for the day’s practice.

After a brief meditation, the team springs into action, ready to tackle drills and strategies in preparation for their game against Mountain View.

Observing from the sidelines, McComb is keenly aware of the challenges ahead, having witnessed the team’s struggles against Mountain View’s defense in previous games. As a reading teacher at the school, her journey to becoming the head varsity coach was driven by a desire to uplift a team she saw struggling with morale.

“I didn’t think about that at all, and that’s not why I did it. I didn’t even know that I was the first. That wasn’t even on my radar,” she explained. “In my heart, I really just wanted to change the program at Montrose. I wanted something for our community, our school, to be proud of.”

Embracing a new coach

McComb faced initial concerns about being the third coach for the seniors in four years. However, her approach was met with acceptance and enthusiasm from the team.

“But they truly embraced me,” she noted. “They embraced our structure, our expectations, and they really left a lasting legacy behind that these guys are trying to continue.”

Last season, the Meteors achieved a 12-11 record, the first winning season for that year’s seniors.

A teacher and a coach

Though McComb transitioned from a player to a gymnastics athlete in high school, her passion for basketball reignited when her son Patrick began playing in fifth grade. Her coaching journey continued from there, eventually leading to her current role.

With support from her family and mentors, McComb embraced the challenge of coaching boys basketball, attending clinics and seeking advice to refine her skills.

“Obviously, I never played boys basketball, so I feel like I have to research more,” she admitted. “I have to work at it more to make sure that I bring the best for my boys. And when there’s things I don’t know, I’ve brought people in to practice to help us.”

‘Leadership doesn’t have a gender’

Assistant coach Josh Winn believes McComb’s teaching background is a significant asset on the basketball court.

“She’s a teacher through and through,” Winn said. “She brings that dynamic to the floor, and that’s massive for them, because many times for these young men, when they don’t do exactly what they’re supposed to do, a lot of times, it’s because they don’t understand. And when they have a teacher, they respond quickly.”

Winn further expressed that McComb’s gender is the “least impactful” aspect of her coaching. “I think that’s the beauty of what’s happened here, is that she was hired to do a job, and she does it. And if someone didn’t tell you what her gender was based on her coaching style, you wouldn’t know. She’s just a phenomenal coach,” he said.

“Leadership doesn’t have a gender,” Winn concluded.

Few women coach boys, men

In the realm of coaching boys and men’s sports, women remain a rare presence, particularly at the varsity level. Notable exceptions include Becky Leandro in Crawford County, who was hired in 2018 as the first woman to coach varsity boys basketball in PIAA District 10, and Annie Malkowiak in Westmoreland County, who became the first woman to coach varsity boys basketball in 2023 at Mt. Pleasant High School. Tanya Garner of Nazareth Prep is another trailblazing woman in the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League coaching boys basketball.

While the PIAA does not track demographic data of high school coaches, research highlights a significant underrepresentation of women in coaching leadership roles. According to WeCOACH, women coached over 90% of women’s collegiate teams in 1972. Today, they coach only 41% of women’s teams across all NCAA divisions.

The Aspen Institute notes that men are twice as likely to coach teams of the opposite gender compared to women. The 2022 National Coach survey revealed that 17% of male coaches worked with female teams most often, compared to only 8% of female coaches who primarily coached male teams.

The study suggests that cultural factors and biases contribute to the challenges women face in entering coaching roles for male sports teams.

Fostering respect and ‘family identity’

Players at Montrose have embraced a strong sense of unity under McComb’s leadership, greeting visitors with handshakes and demonstrating a mature respect for one another.

“She’s dedicated to having quality husbands, quality fathers, quality employees,” Winn said. “She is trying to turn out a young man that is complete, and that is a massive part of what being a coach is.”

In a district with approximately 1,200 students, the basketball team is not only a sports group but a family. Through shared experiences on and off the court, the players have built a close-knit community.

“It’s hard to have an identity as a team when you keep having new coaches,” said senior captain Jude Adams. “But we’ve been working really hard the last couple of years to establish that family identity, and this year especially, I feel we’ve done a good job of establishing who we are as a program.”

For Evan McComb, being coached by his mother is a unique experience. She’s “coach on the court, mom off the court,” he remarked. “I think when the job opened up … she just wanted to take things in her own hands and get it right.”

Improving daily

With a focus on continuous improvement, the Montrose boys basketball team has been working diligently to prepare for their matches. This season has been a rebuilding year, as the team lost four starters to graduation and lacks players with full-year varsity experience. Their current record stands at 9-12, with a 7-6 standing in the league.

Before their game against Mountain View, McComb gathered her team, emphasizing a positive mindset. “Don’t let victory go to your head, and don’t let failure go to your heart,” she advised. “So tomorrow, we have to have that energy mindset. No matter what happened earlier this week, we’re looking ahead. We’re looking forward. We’re getting ready for our next opponent.”