Smith College offered a graduate program in physical education from 1935 until 1985, when the program evolved into exercise and sport studies. During the earlier period, the curriculum was designed to prepare students to teach physical education in school settings. With the passing of Title IX of the Educational Equity Act in 1972, and the tremendous development of athletic programs for girls and women that occurred shortly thereafter, a national need arose for qualified coaches to provide leadership for new programs, and women's sports in general. While the number of athletic programs for women, and the number of female participants have grown dramatically during the past 25+ years, studies over time, have revealed a precipitous decline in the percentage of women who currently serve as head coaches and administrators. For example, in 1972 more than 90% of women’s collegiate athletic programs were headed and coached by females. As well, in the period 1986 to 2000, there was an increase of 2194 jobs for coaches of women's teams, but only 867 (39.5%) of these were filled by women. In 2000, only 45.6% of women’s teams had head coaches who were females. This percentage remained constant in 2002—the 25th anniversary edition of the renowned Acosta and Carpenter data—reflecting the lowest since the projects’ inception in 1977. Consequently, head coaching positions for women's intercollegiate programs during this period of great growth and change were filled, and are being filled, predominantly by males. In 2002, men obtained 326 of the 361 head coaching jobs for women’s teams, while women head only two percent of the men’s teams. Concomitantly, the situation is perhaps worse when one examines administration. Strikingly, in 2002, 18.8 % of athletic programs in the NCAA had no women involved at any level of the administration!

While multiple variables have contributed to this phenomenon, Smith College, the largest undergraduate women's college in the country, decided in 1985 to focus its masters program on training women intercollegiate coaches. The rationale for this decision was threefold. First, the College's mission statement and overall philosophy is to provide women with educational opportunities that will lay the foundation for them to excel and take leadership roles in any occupations they wish to pursue. Behind such thinking was ample empirical and historical evidence suggesting that women have been disproportionately discriminated against socially, educationally, and occupationally, and have thus not enjoyed the benefits of equal opportunity, a basic tenet of our democratic society. Whether or not the decline of women coaches particularly, represents political, social, educational, or experiential factors, remains debatable. Nonetheless, the College has made a commitment to provide students through this program with an educational curriculum that focuses on the science, art and practice of coaching. It is hoped that the knowledge and experience so gained will redress this trend and allow graduates of the program to compete favorably for coaching positions with cohorts at any level, be they male or female. Consequently, as in other areas, the College's intent is to eliminate lack of education or lack of expertise as reasons why women are not hired, or do not apply for a particular position; thus, eradicating deficiency models too often used to explain women’s absence from professional positions. External reviewers over the years have lauded the unique mission of the program, and the effectiveness with which it has fulfilled its objectives. Today, over 90% of the program's graduates are head coaches of intercollegiate teams, and continue to be committed to the Smith Program and its current students.

A second reason for the College's decision to develop a graduate program for coaches of women's teams is a consequence of the resources it already had in place to pursue such an endeavor. Smith is widely known as an institution which is serious about education and possesses the following general attributes: a library which is among the best for a school its size in the country, a faculty committed to teaching, a highly qualified and diverse student population, extensive computer and technological resources, and a 125 acre campus which is a place of great physical beauty. In particular, the College has a marvelous physical plant for sports and athletics that includes excellent outdoor and indoor facilities. As well, the Department of Exercise and Sport Studies over the years has developed a Human Performance Laboratory (HPL) with quality technological equipment capable of assessing sport performance in disciplines such as exercise physiology, biomechanics, and motor learning. Combined with the interest and commitment of faculty in the Department of Exercise and Sports Studies, and coaches in the Athletic Department, Smith College seemed like an ideal environment to offer a program specifically to study and teach the science and art of coaching.

A final factor that supported the development of this program is the large number of intercollegiate athletic teams for women at Smith College—a member of the Five College consortium, and in the Pioneer Valley in general. These teams provide potential opportunities for prospective students to serve as assistant coaches. In addition to Smith, women's athletic programs exist at Amherst, Elms and Mt. Holyoke Colleges. For those interested and qualified to serve as assistant coaches at the NCAA Division I level, opportunities are available at the University of Massachusetts. These institutions are all within a 10-mile radius of one another and are connected by a free bus service. Consequently, while most students are placed with teams at Smith, the geography and common philosophy of institutions in the Pioneer Valley makes it possible to place a larger number of graduate coaches in situations where they could take on important professional responsibilities, as well as be exposed to a diverse group of coaches having a variety of approaches to their sport.

Since its inception in 1985, our experience has corroborated the assumptions upon which the program is based. While our goal is to now produce quality coaches of women's teams, students with diverse, but high quality undergraduate backgrounds, who have had intercollegiate athletic experience as players and/or coaches are exposed to the bodies of knowledge commonly labeled exercise science and sport studies. They have also served as assistant coaches and learned sport techniques, pedagogical methods and group dynamics from senior coaches. In addition, students have had opportunities to study and be involved with the organization and administration of the teams with which they work, the organizations which oversee and govern specific sports, and athletic departments as entities within colleges in which they are placed. With a background combining scientific information about exercise and sports, and practical experiences encompassing all aspects of coaching, graduates of the program are ideally suited to take on the role of head coaches of women's intercollegiate teams. For the most part, students who have been willing to relocate without restriction to a particular geographical area have been successful in finding head coaching positions. Graduates are now serving, or have served, as head coaches at the institutions in the following table. Follow-up evaluations with alumnae and their athletic directors have also corroborated the relevance of the theoretical and practical preparation gained through the program.