Giants: Alyssa Nakken hiring part of growing trend in Bay Area sports

The San Francisco Giants have made a number of unpopular decisions this offseason, but hiring Alyssa Nakken to the coaching staff is a historic move.

In 2020, Alyssa Nakken will become the first full-time female coach in Major League Baseball history, and the San Francisco Giants newest addition is part of a growing trend in Bay Area sports.

That said, Nakken is not necessarily the first, and will not be the last, woman to impact the San Francisco Giants organization.

Sue Burns, along with her husband Harmon Burns, are credited with keeping the Giants in San Francisco following the team’s sale in 1992. Burns was a business woman and philanthropist who became the principal owner of the Giants after her husband passed away in 2006.

She died in 2009, but was a frequent presence among Giants players and coaching staff both at home and on the road. She was often referred to as a team mom, and former Giants manager Bruce Bochy appreciated her support, telling reporters: “She was there every day. She loved her boys. She was proud of them.”

Burns had a major influence on the Giants, and a growing number of women are making an impact across Bay Area sports.

Despite becoming the first female coach on the baseball side of things, Nakken joins Katie Sowers of the San Francisco 49ers and Chelsea Lane of the Golden State Warriors as part of a growing trend of female coaches and personnel in professional sports.

Nakken is being brought on as an assistant coach, and will focus on creating a clubhouse culture that promotes high performance through collaboration and teamwork. She will be joined by Mark Hallberg in this endeavor, but her role will also include on-field coaching and instruction as well.

New San Francisco Giants manager Gabe Kapler has assembled an intriguing coaching staff with limited experience, but the knowledge and communication skills to convey current baseball philosophies to players. His staff will focus largely on development.

Kapler has sought unique and diverse voices in building his staff. Nakken becomes the first female addition to a Major League coaching staff, but the Giants manager interviewed Rachel Balkovec as well. Balkovec went on to join the New York Yankees organization as a minor league hitting instructor.

Similar to Nakken, Katie Sowers is paving the way for women in football. She is serving as an assistant coach on the San Francisco 49ers coaching staff.

Unlike Nakken and Sowers, Chelsea Lane’s work with the Warriors oftentimes went unnoticed, but she was frequently referred to as their “secret weapon.”

It is evident that women are beginning to impact professional sports in a meaningful way, and the hire of Nakken by the Giants is just the most recent example of this trend.

Alyssa Nakken, San Francisco Giants

Similar to many coaches on Gabe Kapler’s coaching staff, Alyssa Nakken is light on coaching experience, but she has extensive experience and knowledge of the sport.

Nakken played softball, volleyball, and basketball while attending Woodland High School. After graduating high school in 2008, she attended Sacramento State University where she played softball while earning a bachelor’s degree in psychology.

On the softball field, she starred as the team’s first baseman while posting a .304 career batting average. She earned All-Pacific Coast Softball Conference honors in each of her four years.

Following her time at Sacramento State, Nakken attended the University of San Francisco and graduated with a Master of Arts in sports management in 2015.

Though she is new to the Giants coaching staff, the former Sacramento State Bee is not new to the organization. While she was in graduate school, Nakken latched on as a baseball operations intern for the Giants starting in 2014.

The 29-year-old filled a variety of roles as part of the baseball operations department, including developing and refining health and wellness programs.

Nakken’s role on Kapler’s coaching staff will emphasize creating a high performance clubhouse culture, so her previous work should carry over into her new role.

Giants manager Gabe Kapler voiced his confidence of Nakken as well as Mark Hallberg in their new roles while talking with reporters:

“Simply, I think she’s going to be a great coach. Merit and the ability to be a great coach trumps all… Alyssa and Mark are highly respected members of the organization and I’m delighted that they will now focus their talents on helping to build a winning culture in the clubhouse. In every organization, environment affects performance, and baseball clubhouses are no different. That’s why in addition to assisting the rest of the coaching staff on the field, Mark and Alyssa will focus on fostering a clubhouse culture that promotes high performance through, among other attributes, a deep sense of collaboration and team.”

Based on Kapler’s comments, it is evident that Nakken will play a daily role in improving the team’s success on the field.

In addition, she will also tap into her knowledge and ability of the sport. Teams are only allowed to carry seven coaches in the dugout, but Nakken will be in uniform while working with Giants players on hitting and fielding drills prior to games.

Nakken recognizes that in her new role, she will serve as a pioneer for future women in baseball:

Similar to Nakken, Katie Sowers is paving the way for women in the NFL with her work just 45 miles south of San Francisco in Santa Clara.

Katie Sowers, San Francisco 49ers

With the San Francisco 49ers recent Super Bowl appearance, Katie Sowers has operated in the spotlight of late. Given her work this season, the recognition she is receiving is much-deserved.

Though the 49ers fell short of their Super Bowl bid against the Kansas City Chiefs, Sowers put her name on the map.

The 2019 season was a success for the 49ers for a number of reasons, including the promotion of Sowers to the coaching staff prior to the start of the season.

The 33-year-old originally came over to the organization in 2016 as a seasonal offensive assistant. She previously worked as an internal scout with the Atlanta Falcons.

Her work and impact did not go unnoticed as she was promoted to an offensive assistant coach by head coach Kyle Shanahan after only two seasons.

Sowers joins Kelsey Martinez of the Oakland Raiders and Phoebe Schecter of the Buffalo Bills to form a growing group of women coaches who hold full-time positions in the NFL.

Despite the momentum being built for women in the NFL, Sowers recognizes that the progress needs to continue. In an interview with Market Watch, Sowers describes her goal for the future of women coaches in the NFL:

“We find it so odd when women lead men, but women have been teaching men for years. We have to normalize it.”

In addition to being a pioneer as a female coach, she is also the first openly gay coach in NFL history. In an interview with Sports Illustrated, Sowers highlighted the importance of bringing diversity to the job:

“No matter what you do in life, one of the most important things is to be true to who you are. There are so many people who identify as LGBT in the NFL, as in any business, that do not feel comfortable being public about their sexual orientation. The more we can create an environment that welcomes all types of people, no matter their race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, the more we can help ease the pain and burden that many carry every day.”

Sowers’ career is just getting started, and the 49ers on-field success this past season was due in part to her role on offense.

While Nakken and Sowers play a role on their team’s respective coaching staff, Chelsea Lane played an equally important role, albeit one that may have gone a bit unnoticed.