First woman to head coach a boys' team at White Bear Lake is turning the soccer program around
She's breaking barriers as the first female head coach of a boys' team at White Bear Lake schools. Taelynn Gittins took the helm of the boys' varsity soccer team last season, and has helped turn the program around.
Before Gittins took over as head coach, the varsity team only had one win in 2023. In 2024, her first season as head coach, they improved to seven wins.
"The program needed a change and she's done a great job so far," said Noah Watson, junior captain on the White Bear Lake boys' soccer team.
A big change she's made with the team is starting their training a lot earlier than normal. Even though the season begins in the fall, the boys are practicing every week this summer.
"Why not get them more training, more touches on the ball?" Gittins said. "So when it comes time for fall, we're not getting the rust off then, we're doing it in the summer."
"Honestly, just the tempo at practices and the effort she's putting in is a lot more surreal, and just the intensity she's putting in is just 10 times better," said Gavin Huot, senior captain on the White Bear Lake boys' soccer team.
Gittins' soccer career began in the goal, and she took her skills to Division III at St. Scholastica College. After she graduated, she started at with the Bears boys' soccer team as a goalie coach and worked her way up to where she is now.
"Our previous head coach really brought me in and made it normal that we're not looking at gender at all, we're looking at skills base," Gittins said.
Breaking the norm in sports means facing age-old standards.
"People have just expected that I'm a manager and not a coach," said Gittins, but she doesn't let those standards stop her. "I kind of let the comments role off my back. My big thing is I kind of use it as motivation to just prove them wrong,"
"She's just another coach. I don't see any different," said Cooper Feirn, senior goalie on the White Bear Lake boys' soccer team.
The improving stats speaking for themselves, but deeper than that, Gittins has brought a more personal connection to this team that has helped all the players improve their game.
"What I like is she talks to us one on one. She can really help you face to face," Feirn said.
"I think she's a lot more personal, and it's easier to be comfortable around and play with confidence when you have a coach you can relate with and talk to," Watson said.
Gittins has helped these players dream bigger as they head towards the start of their new season.
"We're going to state...I know it," Feirn said.
Also new this season — Gittins brought more women onto her staff, including hiring a woman to coach the boys' junior varsity team.
