Rachel Balkovec See Progress For Women In Sports (www.instagram.com)

There was a time when Rachel Balkovec wondered whether baseball’s most important jobs would ever be open to women. Pleased by recent progress in that regard, the second-year Yankees Minor League hitting coach believes that there is more change to come.
“My journey in sports and working in sports has

There was a time when Rachel Balkovec wondered whether baseball’s most important jobs would ever be open to women. Pleased by recent progress in that regard, the second-year Yankees Minor League hitting coach believes that there is more change to come.

“My journey in sports and working in sports has been pretty treacherous at times, so it’s really cool to see women in sports being so widely celebrated,” Balkovec said.

Balkovec appeared Wednesday on

• Ng featured on National Women in Sports Day

Currently in Sydney, Australia, where she has been coaching for the Sydney Blue Sox, Balkovec said that she is preparing to return to the United States and will participate in Yankees’ Spring Training in Tampa, Fla.

“When I first got in, [2012] was kind of the Dark Ages with women in sports,” Balkovec said. “It was pretty lonely. I was on a little bit of an island. The advice that I would give to women just getting in is, ‘Have patience.’ It’s something I may have not have had early on in my career, but I’m getting a lot more of it. Hopefully, 10 years in the game has changed a little bit.”

In 4th grade I said I wanted to be the 1st female kicker in the NFL on an assignment. The boy who sat next to me told me I couldn’t do it.

23 yrs later, summer of 2020, that same boy presented me with the alumni of the year award for making history twice in MLB.

Have a day.🤙

— Rachel Balkovec (@_rachelbalkovec) January 11, 2021

A product of Omaha, Neb., Balkovec played college softball at Creighton University and the University of New Mexico, where she earned a degree in exercise science. After receiving a master’s degree in kinesiology from Louisiana State University, she made the jump to professional baseball as a strength and conditioning coach, hired by the Cardinals as a full-time Minor League coordinator in 2014.

Balkovec worked with St. Louis for three seasons — crossing paths with Luke Voit, whom she called “one of the hardest workers I’ve ever seen” — and the Astros for three years before being hired as a hitting coach by the Yankees last January.

• Afterman, Nakken discuss women in MLB

Though Balkovec prefers to focus on her tasks of helping players improve — “Hit the weights, whether you’re a pitcher or a hitter,” she advises — she believes that visibility is also important for women in professional sports, proving that jobs like hers are available and necessary.

She looks forward to continuing to advance that mindset, along with such other trailblazers as Marlins general manager Kim Ng, Yankees assistant general manager Jean Afterman and Giants Major League assistant coach Alyssa Nakken.

“When I first got into the game, it was pretty empty as far as women in player development and on-field positions,” Balkovec said. “I think we’re just going to see more and more women in high-level positions.”