Raber accepted into NCAA Women's Coaches' Academy

MCLA’s head women’s soccer coach, Deborah Raber, recently was chosen to attend the 2009 NCAA Women’s Coaches Academy. Only 42 coaches were invited to attend this year’s academy, May 27-31, in Denver, Colo.

Raber is in her ninth year at MCLA. In addition to her duties as head women’s soccer coach, she also serves as the College’s sports information director. She is a member of the National Soccer Coaches Association of America’s national goalkeeper staff and an associate national field player staff member. Raber is a 1993 graduate of Green Mountain College. She later earned her graduate degree in counseling from Springfield College.

The NCAA Women Coaches Academy provides skills training for coaches at all levels to assist them in being more efficient, productive, resourceful and successful. The academy is designed for women coaches who are ready and willing to increase their individual effectiveness by learning advanced skills and strategies that directly affect their personal and team success. The participants learn skills that are not sport specific, yet ones that are relevant and necessary for coaching responsibilities, beyond the X’s and O’s.

In 2002, the NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics (CWA) supported an initiative to train, support and retain women coaches. That was the start of the Women Coaches Academy (WCA). To date there have been fifteen highly successful sessions of the five-day academies, which are open to any coach from any sport, and any division. The WCA is designed to give coaches the opportunity to understand their expanding role as a coach, along with perspectives and skills to help them make the most of their situation. In the company and understanding of other coaches, they will have the opportunity to talk and listen with others to gain support and learn new tools and strategies.