Bianca Smith

Bianca Smith (born March 1991) is an American professional baseball coach. During the 2021 season, she became the first African American woman to serve as a professional baseball coach, working in the Boston Red Sox organization.

Early life and education Smith was born in Sewickley, Pennsylvania, and moved to Grapevine, Texas, at age 6 or 7. Her father, Victor Smith, played college football at Dartmouth College from 1985 to 1987; her mother, Dawn Patterson (d. 2013), was also a Dartmouth alumna and an attorney. Her mother was a New York Yankees fan who passed her love of the sport on to Smith. Her step-brother, Reggie Cannon, is a professional soccer player. She graduated from Dartmouth with a bachelor's degree in sociology in 2012. At the same time, from 2013 to 2017, Smith worked as director of baseball operations for the Case Western Reserve Spartans.

Coaching career In 2018, Smith was a volunteer assistant coach for the University of Dallas college baseball team, as well as an intern in the baseball operations departments of the Texas Rangers. She also interned at Major League Baseball corporate headquarters. Her coaching relied heavily on statistical metrics and data analysis.

On December 31, 2020, The Boston Globe reported that the Boston Red Sox would hire Smith as a minor league coach, to be based in Fort Myers, Florida, working with position players. With that assignment, Smith became the first African American woman to serve as a coach in a professional baseball organization. and later served as a coach for the Scottsdale Scorpions of the Arizona Fall League. In 2023, Smith declined an offer to remain as a coach in the Red Sox organization, opting to look for a new opportunity.