If a playbook isn’t helping a team win, then it’s probably time to throw away the game plan and implement new strategies.

The traditional career “playbook” in America has told women that sports-related jobs, from coaching to refereeing to sports writing, are usually meant for men. However, women are increasingly paving career paths in the athletics industry, discarding the old playbook and championing female representation in press boxes, team business offices and beyond.

Scrap the Playbook is a multimedia outlet dedicated to highlighting, connecting and empowering women who work in sports. Hallie Hart, a 2020 graduate of Oklahoma State University’s sports media program, founded this website with the goal of creating a space where women can support other women in the industry.

Trailblazers have engineered and expanded opportunities for women in sports-related careers, but they are still not always treated with the same level of respect their male counterparts receive.  Online searches for phrases such as “female referees” and “female sports reporters” often yield early results that include lists and videos about “hot” and “jaw-dropping” women. Replace the word “female” with “male” in the search bar, and most of the appearance-focused adjectives disappear.

It’s past time to discard the tired cliché that women are just pretty faces on the sidelines. We are professionals, dream-chasers and innovators, and we are also everyday people who love sports. Scrap the Playbook exists to represent women in all of these roles.

Each installment of the Scrap the Playbook Podcast will feature a female professional who will share stories about her experiences in the sports industry and provide listeners with her perspective on newsworthy topics. For more in-depth information, written profiles of these women will accompany their corresponding podcast episodes on this website.

            Although this project is focused on women, all are invited to engage with our content and offer feedback. When we scrap the old playbook and instead choose to uplift women in the sports industry, it’s a victory for everyone.