In North Dakota, a woman coaching high school basketball remains rare enough to make headlines. As recently as January 2026, the Fargo Forum profiled the only two women coaching basketball in the state’s highest sports classification. Both led girls’ teams. A woman coaching boys’ basketball is rarer still. The Dickinson Press highlighted one of the few women in North Dakota coaching a boys’ team at any level, also in January 2026. While no national data tracks women coaching boys’ high school sports, a 2014 Minnesota survey found women made up just 2 percent of coaches for boys’ teams across all sports.
Although women continue to break barriers in high school basketball coaching in the 2020s, they weren’t the first to do so in North Dakota. On this date in 1978, both the Fargo Forum and the Grand Forks Herald reported on Gwyn Herman, the state’s only female boys’ basketball coach at the time.
Gwyn Herman grew up in Beulah, where her love of sports flourished despite very limited athletic opportunities for girls. After graduating from Dickinson State University in 1970, she began her teaching and coaching career in Max, where she founded the girls’ track and basketball programs. In the fall of 1976, she moved to Hampden to teach geography and business and coach the girls’ basketball team.
When Hampden High School’s boys’ basketball coach resigned in January 1978, the school board approached Gwyn about taking over. After a few days of consideration, she accepted and immediately got to work. She earned the boys’ respect after the first practice, and none questioned having a woman as their coach. Gwyn found little difference between coaching boys and girls, aside from the inconvenience of announcing herself before entering the locker room. The Hampden community fully supported her, and referees and opposing coaches quickly adapted to seeing a woman on the sidelines. Assistant coach Dale Schonauer welcomed working under her leadership. As Hampden resident Dennis Werner put it, “Miss Herman’s a good coach. She knows the game of basketball as well as anyone.”
Gwyn never set out to be a trailblazer in the women’s movement, but she firmly believed in equal access to education and employment opportunities. She hoped more women would enter coaching. As she put it, “If a man can coach girls’ teams, why not a woman coaching boys? I believe people should be hired on their qualifications.”
Dakota Datebook by Trista Raezer-Stursa
Sources:
- Bellmore, Mike. “Former Beulah Girl Enjoys Coaching Boys.” The Bismarck Tribune (Bismarck, ND), February 13, 1978, pg. 22.
- Dooner, Carter. “Leader of Men: Kari Dohrmann Leading Richardton-Taylor Basketball to New Heights.” The Dickinson Press (Dickinson, ND), January 22, 2026.
- Durkin, Jim. “Hampden Boys Have a Female Coach.” Grand Forks Herald (Grand Forks, ND), January 27, 1978, pg. B1.
- Hvidston, Colburn, III. “Coach Has School’s ‘Total Support’.” The Fargo Forum (Fargo, ND), February 26, 1978, pg. B1.
- Miller, Mary. “This Coach May Be Little, But She’s Tough.” Grand Forks Herald (Grand Forks, ND), February 26, 1978, pg. 12D.
- Spitza, Ryan. “Shanley’s Beth Maher, Sheyenne’s Morgan Milbrath Hope to Continue Being Role Models for Women in Coaching.” The Fargo Forum (Fargo, ND), January 6, 2026.
- Wasend, Matea and Nicole M. LaVoi. “Are Women Coached by Women More Likely to Become Sport Coaches? Head Coach Gender and Female Collegiate Athletes’ Entry into the Coaching Profession.” Women in Sport and Physical Activity Journal 27, (2019): 85-93.
