After I got into Michigan, before I was even thinking about freshman class registration, I remember my dad telling me that I absolutely need to take John U. Bacon’s class, “the History of College Athletics”. Each semester since, I’ve searched for the class on the course guide, but each time to no avail. Finally, this summer, Bacon announced that he’d be teaching not only the History of College Athletics, but a course titled "Leading by Coaching” as well. Well, the History of College Athletics was an 8:30 class, and I had managed to create a schedule that did not start before 10am any day of the week, and that also did not have any Friday classes worked in. Fortunately, Leading by Coaching was at 11:30, so this decision was a no-brainer.

So far, this class has proven to be one of my favorites throughout my time at Michigan. The class focuses on the fundamentals of leadership and how to inspire your people. The coolest part of this class, though, is probably the multitude of guest speakers that Bacon provides us. We’ve heard from a wide array of coaches so far, including Coach Jack Harbaugh.

I have to say, my favorite speaker that we’ve had so far was Coach Kim Barnes Arico, the Michigan Women’s Basketball head coach. Growing up, I was probably the biggest Michigan Women’s Basketball fan in the state. When my dad would take me to games, I would always beg him to stay a little longer when the game was over so I could try to get some autographs. For that fact alone, it would’ve been incredible to hear from the head coach of that team, but what made it even cooler was that Coach Arico was the first woman we’ve heard from this semester. It’s easy to assume that college athletics coaches are normally males, but hearing from Coach Arico was just as great as hearing from Coach Harbaugh.

At the end of the session, Bacon opened up the floor for any questions we might have for Coach Arico. Something that really stood out to me, and truthfully made me fairly upset, was the first question asked. A guy about halfway towards the back of the classroom raised his hand almost immediately, and asked Coach Arico from what she’s seen so far, what’s the biggest difference between the coaching styles of John Beilein and Juwan Howard. Now I know he probably did not have any bad intentions when asking this question, but that’s just the problem. Here this woman stood before a class of about 100 eager students, talking about her accomplishments as a coach, as a mother, and as a woman, what worked well for her and what maybe didn’t, and the first question anyone could think to ask her about her career was how she perceived two of her male counterparts.

Everyone has implicit biases. Psychologically, people have predispositions that cause them to have biases for and/or against certain identities. The way to combat them—which isn’t an optional thing; you must combat them—is to ignore them. In class that day, my peer did not ignore them.

The Jewish Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, begins tonight at sundown. Yom Kippur consists of a day long fast in which one apologizes for their sins, both personal and interpersonal, and hopes to be inscribed in the book of life for the coming year. I am choosing to apologize this year for my use of profanity in the title of this post, and also specifically, for my implicit biases. In asking for forgiveness, I will also be trying to focus in on ignoring my biases going forward. Whether you are celebrating Yom Kippur or not, I would urge you strongly to do the same.

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