As we get closer to the end of Women’s History Month, it’s pivotal that we recognize these women in coaching. We know that coaches grind for hours upon days year-round to compete in 12 football games. We’re in a day and age where women coaching in college football is becoming commonplace. I consider these women to be trailblazers in the industry.

Mickey Grace — Defensive Analyst at UConn

 

Mickey Grace cut her teeth in the game of football as a player back in her hometown of Philadelphia. At Germantown High School, she became the first woman to earn All-Public League honors at defensive end. While a student at West Chester University, she found herself coaching at her rival high school Martin Luther King High School. At a time when they were facing adversity. Germantown and MLK HS were forced to merge and coaches were on volunteer status due to budget cuts. The documentary “We Could Be King” documents this season, and Grace was featured giving an impactful speech for the school system to keep sports around.

During her time as a coach at MLK, she was diagnosed with a brain aneurysm, but she pushed through and earned her degree. She later became the defensive line coach at Mastery Charter North High School before joining the Philly Phantomz women’s pro team as an assistant. This led her to her dream opportunity to work in the NFL. She served as a training camp intern for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and then earned a position as a scouting apprentice for the Los Angeles Rams. While she was there, she built up her network with coaches and connections. Those connections ultimately led her to a job at Dartmouth as an assistant defensive line coach.

While on a visit to UConn, she ran into Coach Jim Mora after sending her résumé and not receiving a response. After a few meetings, Mora decided to bring her on his staff as an offensive analyst. Mora thinks highly of her and even wants to get her on the field and coach her own position group. In an interview with UConn Today, Mora said “I would like to get her on the field. Her greatest asset is her ability to communicate with the players – be tough and demanding, but never demeaning. I see a high degree of trust immediately between the players and her….”  

When everyone who’s here WANTS to be here, it’s really hard to not have a good time. #CutDifferent pic.twitter.com/R8ndbMgGg1

— Coach Mickey (@CoachMickeyG) April 28, 2022

As she continues to build her résumé in the coaching industry, she will have a lot of people rooting for her. A coach, mother, and most importantly, a person who has faced obstacles in her life and overcome them. We give you your flowers Coach Mickey G!

Milan Bolden-Morris — Graduate Assistant at Michigan

Milan Bolden-Morris grew up around the pigskin as a kid coming from Belle Glade, Fla., where football is life. Her father was a coach and her brother Mike Morris (former Michigan defensive end) was a player. According to an ESPN profile, her brother said she would act as a quarterback warming up throwing farther than any QB they had. Even though she had the potential to be a good player, her mom would not allow her to pad up. In middle school, she eventually found her way to basketball and it became a great way for her to channel her competitive nature. She joined a coed flag football league and played through high school.

She turned that hunger to be great at sports into a scholarship to Boston College and to Georgetown. When she transferred to Georgetown, the inspiration for her football coaching career began to spark. She found that there was an organization that taught kids how to play football. She reached out to the CEO of the company and told them she needed the money, but she soon realized it was becoming a passion of hers.

With her desire to get into college coaching blossoming, she worked in the recruiting department for the Hoyas football program, but she realized she wanted more out of it. Her mom egged on the idea to give Michigan a call. The family built a relationship during the recruiting of her brother. She didn’t want to, so as any mom would do in this situation, she made the call for her daughter.

 

Jim Harbaugh, being the creative guy that he is, was allured by the idea. He decided to bring her in to see how much of the game she knew. Harbaugh called her once they had a graduate assistant position open. That made her the first female graduate assistant in Power Five football. She was brought in to work with quarterbacks, but she has also worked with the tight end group. The players and coaches are really fond of her and respect her knowledge and willingness to grow as a coach.

Keep up the hard work Coach Mimi, and keep elevating!

Heather Marini — Quarterbacks Coach at Brown

Heather Marini became the first female full-time position coach in Division 1 football in 2020, but, coming from Australia, she didn’t necessarily have a knack for the game initially. She always knew she wanted to be a coach but didn’t know exactly what sport she would want to coach. She earned her Bachelor’s of Exercise and Sport Science at Deakin University and a Bachelor’s of Emergency Health from Monash University, where her coaching career began.

Marini didn’t know anything about football back home in Australia until she met her then-boyfriend now husband. He was a player for the Monash Warriors Gridiron Club team. She didn’t really like it because he was an offensive lineman and he didn’t do much, according to a profile from The Athletic. On top of the cold weather and many penalties prolonging the game itself, she didn’t like it.

Once her soon-to-be husband switched over to linebacker, she became more intrigued, even being around the team more as an athletic trainer and strength and conditioning coach. After a sports performance internship at Oregon State, she realized she wanted to be on the field more. She came back to work as an assistant coach for the club team at Monash, leading her to become the head coach of the U19 team.

As she kept working, she realized her opportunity to get more out of coaching was to move to the United States. She and her husband made the move to the Bay Area. She began working with David Shaw at Stanford and shadowed Cal’s offensive coordinator at the time, Beau Baldwin, in the spring of 2018.

 

She spent a lot of the time grinding and traveling around the country making coaching connections and going to clinics, reading books, wanting an opportunity. All the work paid off in 2018, when she earned a scouting internship with the New York Jets. A few months later, she earned the opportunity at the FCS level at Brown as an offensive analyst. In the spring of 2020, head coach James Perry made the decision that would make history, promoting Marini to coach the quarterbacks. EJ Perry, Brown’s star quarterback at the time, guided one of the best offenses in the Ivy League the year before Marini got the promotion and was excited about her hire. She helped him improve his percentage rate and yards per game average.

Keep working coach! You will soon reach your dreams in becoming a head coach in the NFL, Coach Marini!

As we progress in the game of football from high school through the NFL, we will see more and more women coaching football. I think it is a great addition to the game because it gives us fresh eyes to the game. It also challenges the stereotype that women can’t lead men, specifically in sports. The more we see women in coaching, more women will be inspired to become on-field coaches. The game is more accessible than ever to learn, and women are taking great advantage of it.