海角论坛

March is Women’s History Month and to recognize that, Detroit Mercy’s Marketing & Communications department is introducing you to a few interesting women on the McNichols Campus throughout the month. MarCom student intern Hisham Almadani spoke to Madeline Dugan, women’s lacrosse head coach, for a Q&A. Her responses have been edited for brevity and clarity.

Madeline Dugan 
Position: Women’s Lacrosse Head Coach 
Years at 海角论坛: Two  

What does Women’s History Month mean to you?   

I think in athletics in general, we're a wildly underrepresented group, especially at Detroit Mercy, there's only two female head coaches. I think it's bigger than just that; we've obviously come a very long way as females in athletics, but I think it's also important to recognize within, I mean, a month kind of makes me laugh because these are things we should be thinking about all the time and not just one particular month. I do think it's important to recognize that there are strong women in leadership positions, and I think we could have a lot more females in those spaces but yeah, I think it's a great month to recognize strong women that have done great things. 

Who is your female role model? 

Oh gosh. It's going to sound cheesy, but my mother. She's someone who I have obviously always looked up to. Raising three children and although with my dad, being a stay at home mom and then when we were older, choosing to go back to school and getting her master's degree and then having a whole new career, I think is pretty inspiring. The work ethic that she's always had has been pretty inspiring and continues to inspire me. She's fantastic. 

How do you strive to be a mentor to other women? 

I don't want to say the do-it-all mentality because sometimes that's great, sometimes it isn't, but something that I really try to be is open to communication in general – and I love being social and I love talking with people. I think making people feel comfortable is something that I'm really great at and that's what I really strive for every day, that I make the people around me comfortable. Whether that's my athletes, my colleagues or in my personal relationships, I want you to feel valued and I hope that I spread that with everybody that I encounter.

What challenges have you faced as a woman in your field and how have you overcome them? 

I think in general, not just athletics, women are underpaid. I think I've run into that at other places where I've worked.  I know that has always been a little bit of a struggle but I also don't really let that affect how I work and how I operate day-to-day. Of course, I want to continue to push for equal pay and equal treatment. That's also another thing we run into is making sure that we're getting the same treatment as our male counterparts. I think showing that we deserve those things, and honestly, I have a big mentality of “if nobody's going to give it to us, we're just going to go out and get it” you know?

Why were you interested in becoming a women's lacrosse coach? 

I played lacrosse in college and growing up, my original plan was to go on to law school — so a little bit different than becoming a college coach. But I couldn't imagine my life without lacrosse back in 2014 when I graduated from college, so it was actually a coach in our conference that said something like, “hey, maybe you should coach.” And I ended up getting an assistant job out of college and haven't really looked back. Obviously, being a coach is tough. It's not a high paying job, and sometimes you really have to grind to get what you want — it doesn't matter male or female in that sense.

To get where we want to get to, we have to work really hard and put a lot into our teams, our athletes, and our programs. It's definitely not for the faint of heart, that's for sure.

What is your advice for young women? 

Nothing is too big. If there's something you want, you go out and you make that happen. I say this as a coach: I would rather see someone fail trying than not try at all. That's how I live my life, too. I'm going to keep trying to reach my goals personally and professionally.

Dream big and go out and get it. You can create what you want.