Bianca Smith | |
---|---|
Coach | |
Born: March 1991 (age 33)
[1]
[2] Sewickley, Pennsylvania | |
Bats: Right Throws: Right |
Bianca Smith (born March 1991) is an American professional baseball coach. During the 2021 season, she became the first African American woman to serve as a professional baseball coach, working in the Boston Red Sox organization.
Smith was born in Sewickley, Pennsylvania, and moved to Grapevine, Texas, at age 6 or 7. [3] Her father, Victor Smith, played college football at Dartmouth College from 1985 to 1987; her mother, Dawn Patterson (d. 2013), was also a Dartmouth alumna and an attorney. [4] [5] Her mother was a New York Yankees fan who passed her love of the sport on to Smith. [6] Her step-brother, Reggie Cannon, is a professional soccer player. [6]
Smith attended Colleyville Heritage High School in Dallas, where she played softball and was a co-captain in her senior year. [4] She graduated high school in 2008. [7] She next enrolled at Dartmouth College, where she played on both the varsity softball team and the club baseball team. [4] [8] [9] She graduated from Dartmouth with a bachelor's degree in sociology in 2012. [7]
With an eye on pursuing a career as a baseball general manager, Smith obtained a J.D. degree and a MBA in sports management from Case Western Reserve University in 2017. [7] [10] At the same time, from 2013 to 2017, Smith worked as director of baseball operations for the Case Western Reserve Spartans. [11]
In 2018, Smith was a volunteer assistant coach for the University of Dallas college baseball team, as well as an intern in the baseball operations departments of the Texas Rangers. [12] [7] She also interned at Major League Baseball corporate headquarters. [13] In 2019, she was a baseball operations trainee with the Cincinnati Reds. [7] In August 2019, she was hired as assistant athletic director for compliance and administration, and assistant baseball coach and hitting coordinator, at Carroll University in Wisconsin. [7] [9] [14] [13] Her coaching relied heavily on statistical metrics and data analysis. [12]
On December 31, 2020, The Boston Globe reported that the Boston Red Sox would hire Smith as a minor league coach, to be based in Fort Myers, Florida, working with position players. [8] On January 4, 2021, the Red Sox made the hiring official. [11] Per the Red Sox' 2021 minor league assignments, she became part of the coaching staff assigned to the team's Fenway South complex, led by manager Tom Kotchman. [15] With that assignment, Smith became the first African American woman to serve as a coach in a professional baseball organization. [8] [15] She received sponsorships from Nike, Oakley, and Topps. [6]
In 2022, Smith returned as a coach at the Fort Myers complex, [16] and later served as a coach for the Scottsdale Scorpions of the Arizona Fall League. [17] In 2023, Smith declined an offer to remain as a coach in the Red Sox organization, opting to look for a new opportunity. [18]
Smith was born in Sewickley, but most of her upbringing took place in Grapevine, Texas.