Sewickley, Pennsylvania’s own Bianca Smith is breaking barriers and making history serving as the MLB’s first Black woman professional baseball coach.
The Boston Red Sox made the union official on January 4th commencing Smith to work with the minor league affiliate in Fort Myers, Florida, then joining the franchise in February for their spring training.
Inspired by her days in Dallas’s Colleyville Heritage high school as a softball player and senior co-captain, Smith’s drive for sports has been embedded in her DNA with her father, a fellow Dartmouth alumni football player.
She attended Dartmouth college playing outfielder for their softball team as well as their baseball division, later graduating with a B.A. in sociology, earning her J.D. degree in sports law and MBA in sports management from Case Western Reserve University while working as the director of their baseball operations in 2017.
Bianca got her first taste at coaching as a volunteer assistant for Dallas University’s baseball league in 2018 afterward interning for both the Texas Ranger’s organization and MLB corporate headquarters.
The following year, she was appointed the Cincinnati Reds baseball operations trainee and in August 2019, was hired as assistant athletic director, baseball coach, and hitting coordinator for Carroll University leading up to her latest venture.
“I initially wanted to be a veterinarian, but I took that one biology class in college and decided it wasn’t for me,” said Smith. “I started searching. I knew I loved sports and I loved baseball”.
Going to Pittsburgh Pirates games as a young girl and declaring pioneer the late Jackie Robinson as her hero, Bianca paid appreciation to her idol and the art of baseball. “He had to face so much just to play, just to exist as a human being, and he still preserved”.
“What he did off the field also inspires me to want to do more for the game. Now that I’m in this position, I can be the person that looks like [Black girls] and show them they can also do it” stated Smith.
Notably, Bianca is also the third historic elect of a woman in less than a year within the MLB. Michele Meyer-Shipp was chosen as MLB’s first chief people and culture officer, Kim Ng as general manager of the Miami Marlins, and Alyssa Nakken becoming the first female full-time coach for the San Francisco Giants.
It is evident, the future of change and diversity of racial equality and women’s empowerment is becoming more than hopeful for the world in which we live.
