WAUKESHA, Wis. — The newest coach in the Boston Red Sox organization will make history this season. When current Carroll University hitting coordinator Bianca Smith joins the Gulf Coast League Red Sox coaching staff, she will become the first Black woman to coach professional baseball or a Major League affiliate.
Bianca Smith will be joining the #RedSox organization this season, making her the first Black woman to coach in professional baseball history. pic.twitter.com/ZQsHd8iprD
— Red Sox (@RedSox) January 5, 2021
“It’s honestly still surreal,” Smith said in a Thursday media session hosted by the Red Sox. “When I accepted the offer, I really just wanted to coach. I really didn’t think about how big this was.”
A lifelong baseball fanatic who idolized Jackie Robinson and Derek Jeter, Smith grew up in Texas before enrolling at Dartmouth, where she walked on to the softball team as an outfielder during her junior year. Smith interned in the Texas Rangers and Cincinnati Reds front offices, then started carving her own path into coaching.
Smith began her professional career at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, where she was hired as a graduate assistant and became the program’s director of baseball operations.
Her acuity for statistics and data analysis has led to expanded roles at every stop. Smith joined the staff at Division III University of Dallas as a volunteer coach in 2018, and in 2019, she moved north to Waukesha and took charge of the hitting program.
“[It’s been] just getting in front of the right people, having people see this is what I want to do,” Smith said. “Then, thankfully, the right people had my back, not only to get on the field, but stay on the field.”
Carroll players had not expected Smith to leave before the 2021 season, but were not shocked to see her rise in the baseball ranks.
“There haven’t been many people that I could be like, ‘Okay, this person is going to pioneer something for generations beyond,’” said TJ Pfaffle, a senior catcher and Waukesha native. “I think this is just a step in the right direction, not just for baseball but sports in general.”
Smith said she never dreamed of becoming a baseball coach because she had never seen women in a baseball dugout. When she joins the Red Sox farm team in Fort Myers, she will be an example to girls there are opportunities in reach in male-dominated sports.
“I would love to have that as part of my legacy,” Smith said. “It’s become a lot more to me than it was originally, just seeing how inspired people are by the idea.”
Smith remains humble, as she is still in the first chapter of her baseball career. But she does allow herself to dream big.
“The easiest way to put it is just get as high as I can, which at this point is MLB manager,” Smith said. “I never want to have to limit myself.”