Bianca Smith is having a great start to the new year. The Boston Red Sox recently hired Bianca Smith as minor league coach making Smith the first Black woman to coach professional baseball, reports Boston Globe.

“She was a great candidate coming in,” said Red Sox vice president of player development Ben Crockett. “She’s had some really interesting experiences and has been passionate about growing her skillset and development herself.”

Prior to joining the Sox staff, the 29-year-old played softball at Dartmouth College. She also served as a baseball operations intern with the Texas Rangers in 2017 and interned for the Cincinnati Reds baseball operations in 2019. Currently, she serves as an assistant baseball coach and hitting coordinator at Carroll University in Wisconsin under head coach Stein Rear.

"I wanted to learn more about how the body actually worked." – New @RedSox minor league coach Bianca Smith on studying biomechanics to help gain an edge.

Full #MLBNHotStove chat: https://t.co/kahMXVsGQI pic.twitter.com/jUauwsowIs

— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) January 5, 2021

“I’m 45 years old,” Rear said. “So, you know, when she brings in some of that technology, she brings a lot to the table that isn’t necessarily my strength. So it was good to have that piece for us, as well.”

Smith has a strong analytical background and studies biomechanics to “learn more about how the body actually worked,” she said in an interview with MLB Network. “I wanted to be able to see first how my athletes move and then what are the best drills that work for them in the constraints of their own body.”

Her continued education and history-making in Boston will be a great thing to witness. She is expected to work with minor-league position players at the Red Sox’s spring training complex in Fort Myers, Florida.

“I think it’s huge,” said Robert Lewis Jr., founder of The Base. “I’m not going to lie to you, a Black woman, I mean, there’s all this symbolism that goes along with it. We all know, the Red Sox being the last team to sign an African-American… Somebody needed to be a pioneer.”

Bianca Smith

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