Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Welcome to the premiere episode of Sideline Sessions on the Be Podcast Network.
My first guest, Dr. Jenifer Welter, is a trailblazing athlete and coach who is extremely on-brand to kick off our show.
In 2015, Welter became the first female coach in NFL history when she coached linebackers for the Arizona Cardinals. She was also the first woman to play a contact position in men’s professional football when she signed as a running back with the Texas Revolution, a professional indoor football team.
Jen also had a distinguished career in women’s professional football, as a 2x World Champion with the US and 8x pro bowler. She’s a culture shift expert with an MS in sport psychology and PhD in psychology. And, as you may expect, she was an amazing guest on the show.
Some of our conversation covers:
- Jen’s journey to playing and coaching football
- How she prepared herself for the opportunity to coach — before even knowing it was possible
- Shattering the “glass sideline” (in both the NFL and Madden 2020)
- The power of authentic leadership
- Keeping players physically and mentally healthy
- The state of women’s football and Grrridiron Girls flag football
- What difference can coaches make in changing opportunities for their athletes and future coaches?
Subscribe to Sideline Sessions to hear the rest of our fall-winter season. We’ll continue to bring you insights from diverse coaches across the sporting landscape. Subscribe here: https://sidelinesessions.transistor.fm/subscribe
About today’s guest
Coach Jen Welter is best known as the first female to coach in the NFL as an assistant LBs Coach with the Arizona Cardinals. However, what most people don’t know is that Coach Jen broke into men’s football as the first female to play running back in men’s pro football. From that experience with the Texas Revolution, Coach Jen started her coaching career.
Following the NFL, Welter became the Head Coach of the first Australian Women's National Team fielded in July 2017; joined the advisory board of the Pro Football Hall of Fame's Game for Life Academy, and wrote her first book Play Big: Lessons in Living Limitless from the First Woman to Coach in the NFL.
Prior to joining the men's game, Coach Jen had an amazing career in women's football which included two gold medals with Team USA, four world championships, and eight all-star selections. While playing football, Dr. Jen obtained her PhD in Psychology and a Master’s in Sport Psychology. Dr. Jen also has a BS in Business from Boston College.
About the host
Ross Romano is co-founder of the Be Podcast Network and also hosts The Authority Podcast. He began his career in the pro sports industry before becoming a leading communications, marketing, and management expert working with education companies. He is founder and CEO of September Strategies, a coaching and consulting firm that helps organizations and high-performing leaders in the K-12 education industry communicate their vision and make strategic decisions that lead to long-term success. He also works directly with professionals at all levels, in all industries, coaching them in their pursuit of success.
Are you a professional looking for insights to reach the next level, find a fulfilling new career, or achieve peak performance? You may be a candidate for performance coaching. Schedule an introductory chat here.
Creators & Guests
What is Sideline Sessions?
Designed for coaches, parents and other stakeholders in the world of youth, scholastic, and amateur sports, this show brings you interviews with leaders at the highest levels of their respective sports.
Hear from coaches and performance experts with experience in the National Football League, National Basketball Association, Olympics, and NCAA Division-I, plus those who run elite youth programs, successful high school teams, and more. Hear about their motivations, philosophies, and strategies for success, and take away actionable insights to support the athletes in your life.
Sideline Sessions S1E1 - Jen Welter
===
[00:00:00] Welcome everybody to Sidelines Sessions on the Bee Podcast Network. Thanks so much for being a part of our premiere episode here as we kick off this brand new series. We've been [00:01:00] working on it a long time and I'm really thrilled to launch this and bring this into the network.
If you're a coach in youth scholastic or amateur sports, this is definitely the podcast for you. And we also expect to bring valuable insights to parents, administrators, all other stakeholders that are really interested in sporting competitions of all kinds. At the youth level, the school level, amateur level.
I'm sure there's going to be some tidbits, even if you're on the pro level here as well. We're planning to talk to all kinds of coaches, trailblazing, professional coaches, those who have trained gold medal Olympians, founders of elite youth programs, a lot more, we're going to hear their stories. How they got where they are and also discuss their ideas to bring out the best in your athletes and student athletes.
So today with all that said, we have a guest who's very much on brand as the very first guest on this show. We have somebody who's made a career out of being the first in a number of positions in 2015. Dr. Jennifer Welter became the first female coach in NFL history when she coached linebackers for the Arizona Cardinals.
She also was the first woman to [00:02:00] play a contact position in men's professional football when she signed as a running back with the Texas Revolution, which is a professional indoor team. And she had a distinguished career in women's pro football as well. A two time world champion with the U. S., eight time pro bowler.
She's a culture shift expert. She has a master's in sports psychology, PhD in psychology, and she's our guest here today. Jen Welter, welcome to the show. Thank you.
Hey, thanks for having me. I love what you're doing for you sports and the competitive landscape. I think we need more conversations like this. So cheers to you.
Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, it's amazing. I mean, we've been thinking about this series for such a long time thinking, okay, how do we start putting it together? And we have content as our listeners may already know for school leadership and for you know, leadership coaches and teachers and parents and all across the spectrum, right?
All kinds of learning and development positions. We said, you know what? We need to have sports coaches here too, . So yeah let's, let's jump into it and let's start [00:03:00] with just your journey. How did you know, just kind of even going back to youth, right? Did you just have a general love of sports?
Was it always about football? Kind of how did you start out, along the pathway to where you know, eventually made a career in this? Yes.
W (ad here) ell, I grew up in Vero Beach, Florida. So if anybody's familiar with Florida football, it is Friday night lights. And as a kid, I remember watching the players out on the field and thinking that the football players look like superheroes. And I wanted to be a superhero. As simple as that. I just wanted to be, I wanted to be among them.
And it was the first place in the world that somebody told me boys and girls could do different things. And so, I it wasn't like it always had to be football for me, but it was kind of like that sport I loved from afar played everything else pretty much that didn't height me out, right?
Like, I mean, I, my [00:04:00] top height is 5'2 so I was a really good volleyball player at one time, and then everybody got tall. My main sports were tennis, soccer, softball and then I went to college and played rugby because it was the closest I could get to football so learned how to tackle in rugby, got recruited for the under 23 national team, at which time they, Also figured out I was only 5'2 did not make the U. S. national team and got recruited from a flag football league I was playing in to try out for this tackle football team, and I made it, and I promised myself that was what I was going to do for the rest of my life, like, this was the sport I was meant to do, and I was going to figure out how to integrate it in my life on a day to day basis.
Excellent. I know there was a number of things you did particularly with respect to you, of course, I'm sure we're synthesizing prior evidence and the reality you saw before you with [00:05:00] your goals and your ambitions and the things you wanted to achieve and saying, okay, there's a lot of things you did to prepare yourself for the opportunity that Eventually you would have to coach in men's professional football. What are some of the things you were doing along the way to put yourself in position to be ready when the time was right.
Well, first and foremost, I have to correct you on one thing. I never imagined that I could coach football because women didn't do that. And so I often speak on the importance of on representation and how much it matters. And how much being able to see someone that looks like you doing what you want to do to be able to.
You know, kind of picture yourself doing that, right? Like to picture yourself being on the sidelines. I didn't have that kind of vision. But what I did do to prepare myself for whatever my life [00:06:00] was going to look like was that I got my PhD while playing football. So my life for a very long time was work by day, play football by night, go to school by very late night. And. So to me, it was, if I did that, then I could take my practical experience as a player, marry that with my PhD in psychology, and become a unique value proposition to the sport. Someone who had a different and valuable perspective. And... You know, I think that when we're building teams, when we're looking at staffs, when any of those things, that's what you want.
You want additional valuable perspectives so that you have multiple voices in a room. And I am just thankful. You know, that men actually some great men recognized potential in me and gave me opportunities to step up to those challenges. It was playing in men's pro football that opened up the door to then coaching in indoor football, which [00:07:00] is what I did before the NFL.
yeah. So, I mean, it sounds as though in a lot of ways you know, you consistently doing different things to prepare, right? Getting education, thinking about at least opening yourself up to a variety of possibilities taking advantage of opportunities that came as a player and then a lot of the things developed organically, right?
It was, okay, now I'm here, Now what might be next? Where does that lead? How did it end up happening when it eventually did say, okay, as you mentioned I didn't imagine that I could be coaching because it's never been done before. I didn't see anybody doing it.
Somebody else had to, there had to be people that would allow you and help you to get into that position. How did it end up happening?
Yeah, so I was playing on the Texas Revolution and I played a whole season and getting hit by those guys every day for a year. Yeah.
was one of those things. It taught me a lot. It taught me how to be a great teammate, taught me how to see things differently. You know, I went from [00:08:00] in women's football being on the U. S. national team, so arguably, obviously, one of the best players in the world, to now I'm scratching and clawing and fighting to be on the practice squad. And, So, it was this challenge of how do I continue to add value to a team where I'm not the baddest one out there. Well I was smart and I would hey, this is what they're going to do next time, blah, blah, blah.
And it was like a joke. Like, I mean, like in a loving way, the guys would jokingly, it wasn't a joke that I was helping them. They would jokingly say like, she's like our little coach on the sidelines. And I would jokingly say back, yeah, it's like Marvin the Martian. I get to take all of this great knowledge and put it in your big body.
So we kind of naturally did it anyway. But again, it wasn't like I was like, Oh, I'm good. It was former Dallas Cowboy, Wendell Davis, who in the off season was hired as the new head coach. And [00:09:00] when he was there I walked into an event that he and some of the Texas Revolution players were on and are at.
And when they saw me they picked me up and tossed me around like football because relative to them, I am one. And... Wendell said, who is this girl that all my guys love? And they laughed. They're like, Coach, that's your running back. And I remember Wendell telling me later, he's like, Jen, I knew everything about you, but I never imagined that those guys would love you like that.
He's like, I can teach you how to coach football, but I can't teach that. And he said, like, he called me the next day after, after he met me, he sat me down, grilled me on football. I mean, everything, right? And I think I'm done, right? I'm done with this team, not getting hit again. So basically, or getting hit by these guys again every day for a year.
So I basically just was brutally honest. You want to know why they're not playing well while these guys, you say that meals are included. A 5 [00:10:00] meal voucher is not cutting it. They're hungry. Right? Like I was just really honest and apparently that hit a chord with him because he called me the next day and said all my defensive coordinator and I could talk about is how you had to coach this football team.
And I said, no, I was, what do you mean? No. I said, no, girls don't coach football. I'm not doing that. And he said, not a lot of guys are going to give you this opportunity. You're taking this job. And I said, no, and I hung up on him. And the next day he called me back and told me about myself. He said, do you remember how I told you not a lot of guys were going to give you this opportunity and you were taking this job?
I said, yeah. He said, good. I took it for you. You're coaching for me, and by the way, you can't quit, otherwise the entire narrative surrounding women coaching in men's pro football will be, we had a girl once and she quit, and so, really had no choice, and I am so thankful for Wendell seeing that in me, before I even [00:11:00] saw it in myself.
Yeah. And I was like and I'm going to ask you what coaching is to you and what coaching means to you. And isn't that story such a great illustration of so much of what coaching is to see in somebody else, the thing that they don't yet see in themselves. And to take a stand for it, right?
And to advocate and say, look, you're not getting out of this. You can do this. And there's no escape.
Yep. And and for me that was. It's something that we say that we do as coaches, right? You recognize what makes somebody different, makes them special, put them in a position for success and help them develop in ways that mitigate or minimize their liabilities. So you can teach certain elements, but certain things also impress people.
And it was really the relationships that stood out to Wendell and why he made that decision. And and I like to tell that story because I think so often we [00:12:00] assume that people have all of the answers and none of the questions and. Even for me, I tell people as a coach, you got to be coachable first and foremost, right?
I, how can I lead you somewhere if I don't know where you're trying to go? You personally, right? And how do I lead you somewhere if I don't know what you've been through? Or how you learn or what your background is or what your experiences are. Have you been through an injury? What's holding you back?
If I'm not coachable, if I'm not there to gather that information and use it to maximize someone's success, then I'm going to be basically blindfolded throwing darts at a board. And some will hit, and some will hit well, and some will miss big. And my goal is to, even if everything doesn't work as a player, to be a good person in the process.
Yeah, as you've now had been involved with coaching for [00:13:00] several years, have you developed your own thoughts on what you believe coaching is or coaching's purpose, right, just kind of that foundational definition of this is what it means to be a coach
Well, I have a philosophy on how great coaches are people that have great relationships. And I think to be a great coach... It's really about empathy and developing, coaching relationships where the foundation is trust and love. And and I tell people that and I'm like, listen, People talk about perfection.
Perfection is only possible in intention, right? I can look at somebody's tape and I can do my very best to give you the very best breakdown that I have, but they're also changing things too, right? So I can be perfect in my Intention. And then we have a relationship so that we can talk and get better and know that if I didn't tell you something, it wasn't like I was holding something [00:14:00] back.
I did the best that I could. So our intention can be perfect. Our execution can get incrementally better. And it's a coach's job to make a player better as a person and as a performer. And those two are not inseparable. Now, sometimes you won't have that tight relationship with each of your players, but it should be the intention.
Because unless we're looking at athletes As whole people, then we're missing the magic because ultimately as coaches, we have to know not every player that we ever encounter is going to go on to make millions of dollars and play at the highest level. Just true. So what then can you do as a coach? You can have an impact on who this person is in their life.
And that to me is the beauty of sport in terms of. It's role in our development as humans is that [00:15:00] we want to find places and spaces where we bring the best out of people. And for me, I've coached everyone from guys in the NFL to special needs kids in Snoop's Special Stars. And.
Every single one of them, first of all, has a right to be out on that field and to find their best self and to find an end zone dance. And it's my job to give them the very best that I can while I'm there and to connect with them as people too.
Yeah, Yeah, I think that. Makes a lot of sense, and I think it certainly aligns with I think some of the qualities that stood out in you as a player that Made other coaches recognize that this person could be a coach. Because there's relationships there and there's that ability to generate those.
And of course, on a sport like football, you have how many people on a team, right? And only so many opportunities to know each person to a [00:16:00] certain extent, but yet having that relationship mentality and mindset. And You know, another word that comes to mind is the authenticity of it. I know one of the topics that you speak about is authentic leadership, right?
The power of that, and I'm wondering how did you find that voice? Like, the authentic voice in yourself, especially being in situations like these where you may be the only person in the room that is a female that looks like yourself or you know, the, so you're developing those relationships.
You're showing your authentic self, but you're also understanding that that there's a lot of different dynamics at play. Right. And and of course the power is in that authenticity, but it's not necessarily, it doesn't make it easy. Right.
The first thing I'll say is some rooms are harder than others. You know, some people really value that, other people are advocates for the status quo and I think that's where you navigate your places and [00:17:00] spaces for me, though, the person that I give credit for really putting that authenticity first is a guy that anybody in the football world should know is Terry Glenn, and Unfortunately, we lost TG back in 2017 and he was a big part of my book and he passed away before I was able to give him a copy, so, it always hit my heart that I wonder if he knew how much he meant to me or how much, what a gift he gave me in giving me the confidence to walk into a room authentically and, We were, he coached with me at the Texas Revolution.
And he was just, he was so real, right? He just loved the game and he wanted everybody to get better. And you know, he just, he shined on the football field and TG was a quiet guy. So, and say a ton. But when he said something, it said something. So you really had to pay attention. And it's like [00:18:00] 6am in, in indoor football, like we had to have the guys practice before work so that then they could go to work after.
And I remember T. G. came up to me and he said Jen, I've been thinking a lot about you going to the NFL. And The best advice I can give you is to be 100 percent authentic. So if you're the same person with those guys that you were here with us every day, they will absolutely love you. But if you're fake in any way, they will sense it and eat you alive.
And so I really took that as permission to be myself and how important it was to not try and be fake, not try and be somebody I wasn't there's a lot of guys there. I was never going to out man a man of being a man. And frankly, they didn't need another man. They needed me. Right. And they needed me to walk in and look at things as a former player, as a female, [00:19:00] as a PhD, all of those, whatever it was that was me and different.
That's what they needed. And that's what not only did I strive to, but I strive to bring with me in every situation. Some easier than others, but I think that There's real value in really just being honest about who you are, what you are, what you know, and what you don't know.
Yeah, and I'm sure your degrees in psychology proved very helpful, particularly with your emphasis on relationships, right, and how to relate to people, and I'm wondering if you also, did you feel like you were able to develop some type of a mental edge from the fact that even prior to ever getting involved in men's football you still would have day in your career been an underdog in the sense that you were a great player, but you were one of the smallest [00:20:00] people on the field still, right?
Even in the women's game, it's you were, you had to figure out different ways to be effective and to gain an advantage and to be smarter than the next person and to think a little bit ahead of the next thing, right? And you know, you had certain physical gifts, but in other ways, it wasn't like you were just out there running everybody over and all of that, right?
So even then, you were, I'm sure, developing a lot of the things that became advantageous later on that maybe, who knows? I mean, I don't know how much more difficult it would have been if. If that hadn't been the case, because, and it was maybe things that you were preparing for mentally before you knew what it eventually would be used for but just thinking about how do I outthink my opponent, right, how do I think more about the game and think about that, and then, of course, that helps you down the road be able to teach as well.
Yeah, I think each [00:21:00] one of us has to really realize who we are and what we're about on a football field or in whatever field of play that is. For me, I know. You know, one example I can give is when I was first playing, I had an idea of what a football player looked like, and she was everything that was not me.
You know, they were big and strong, and grr, and they wore black, and they looked real intimidating, and I remember kind of trying that, and You know, at five foot two, it's not scary. It's a little funny, right? Like I wasn't scaring anybody. No one was going to be like, Ooh, she's intimidating.
And when I realized that like leverage is actually an advantage in football. So we say low man or low women wins. So I had a natural advantage that I was losing in trying to be something that I wasn't. And I was not going to out big anybody, but I could out little, out fast, out tough. And so once I leaned into really my [00:22:00] differences that were my superpowers, then I became great.
I went from good to great. And greater, the more the more I focused on that, and I think too often we lose that, right? We have an ideal and it's not actual, right? And you have to focus on the things that you can control. That's one of the things we do in sports psychology, and one of the things that you cannot control is height.
Right. Can't, I'm not going to be able to change that now. Can I work to develop a better vertical leap? Yes. Can I work to get a quicker first step? Yes. All of those things are under my control, but I can't sit and cry about the fact that I'm 5'2 right? That is not going to change. So it is not productive energy.
The energy, right. And the place in the space that I can do real stuff is by focusing on making myself the best performer [00:23:00] that I can. And then knowing things from a psychological perspective, how you carry yourself keep your head up, your chest up, never Not showing certain physical weaknesses were things that I became very good at and very practiced at.
And I convinced people that I was the crazy American. I mean that I was indestructible and I was in really good shape. And I carried that mentality and knew people were watching at all times, so never wanted them to see me anyway but looking like I was ready for the next play.
(ad here)
I think a lot of that goes back to once again, the authenticity, being yourself, figuring out who are you are, who are you, what are the unique qualities that you bring to the picture, right? And in a team sport, a team environment, whether you're a coach or a player it takes a lot of different components to make it an effective organization, right?
If everybody's the same, you're, there's some things you're going to be missing. [00:24:00] And a lot of that force would be coming, whether you're on the team and maybe you're a captain or a team leader, but especially as a coach and understanding the different paths. The coach's take, it's how do you earn credibility?
How do you earn the respect of your team? I think it's a great topic. to touch on, especially with respect to if we have listeners who are coaching at a variety of levels where they may not have yet put as much thought into it as naturally needs to be done as you get to the college and certainly the professional levels and the kind of age gap experience, all those other things close, right?
And it's how do I earn it? There's highly successful professional coaches that have never been players at that level. But there are things that they do that earn them credibility with their [00:25:00] team and the respect of their players. And there's others who may have been a great player and they don't they lose it.
And so it's not about and we've talked about the relationships a lot. And of course, that's an important piece. So there are other things that come to mind that you've learned, or there's certainly that you've observed in other coaches that you've worked with to say, okay, these are the things when I see a coach doing this and this.
immediately I'm bought in. Or vice versa. And then when I see a coach doing these other things, it's, I can tell it's not going to work out so well.
I think honesty is really important. People don't like fake, right? I tell people all the time when I know something I'm very direct, right? This is what it is. When I don't know it, I'm also very direct. Like, oh, I don't know. Right? Like I've had people ask me about coaching quarterbacks.
I, I do not coach quarterbacks. I know how to make a quarterback's life difficult. That's what I know how to [00:26:00] do. Right? You've got to get somebody else for that. And I tell people and they're like, Oh you, you so easily pass that off. And I'm like, of course I did. Now I could help a kid who's never thrown a football before be better. But I can't help a quarterback whose practice quarterback be better unless it's on X, Y, and Z. Right? Maybe focusing or you know, making sure they're calling out route combos as they do it, but I'm not gonna get there in their mechanics and things. The only thing I can do is scroll 'em up at that point.
But I tell people, I'm like, I will very quickly tap out in a conversation where I am not the authority. Because if someone tells me they know everything about everything. I already know they're lying about something and now instead of looking at the places where they can help, where they can move mountains, where they can be oppressive.
I'm looking for the place where they're full of BS, right? And naturally do that. And I did that as a player too. And so a lot of the things when it comes to earning respect, and I'm [00:27:00] glad you said earn respect because a lot of times people will say command respect. And I go, Oh, cringe, you cannot come back.
You have to earn respect through your actions, through your consistency, through your communication, through your relationship, through being coachable, right? Like that's one I will go back to is like. You know, I think it's really important to get to know people before you, you come out and you're just like, well, this is what we're going to do.
Okay. Well, this is what you're going to do. You're going to, you're going to throw the ball up in the end zone and all of your receivers are five foot. Did you check that first? Cause you know, that high ball may not work, right? Like you really have to know what you're working with and be honest about it and then be able to adapt and overcome.
People respect that a lot. Having good communications, being open to those connections, developing relationships. Those are respect. And then consistency. If I give you my word, I'm going to keep my word. Because the second you don't. The respect is [00:28:00] out the window. How do I tell you to do something and I don't hold somebody else accountable?
Right? How do I disrespect you as a human and expect you to respect me as a human? Right? Like, I think a lot of those things just go from being very honest and upfront. And I mean, I have literally said that to people, like, I will tap out. I don't know. This is what it is. And then going back to what I said earlier, which I think every coach should keep in mind keep this as a focus.
Our intention is the one place that we can be perfect. We can have perfect intentions perfect intention on a play, you can do this, that, the other, and then together we'll work on incrementally improving execution. Step by step, we read faster, we move faster, we change direction faster, whatever that is, and we'll get better at execution, and even we'll get information that we didn't know before.
You know, [00:29:00] we game plan for a pocket passer and now they have a mobile quarterback. Well, it was not my intention to tell you we had a pocket passer and now he's mobile. It was not my intention. It's not like, oh, I'm going to really mess him up today and give him the wrong information, right? My intention was that we had a pocket passer and we were going to cage it and we were going to be real aggressive in that way, not let him bring the pocket, blah, blah, blah, blah.
We were going to do it X way. Now, all of a sudden we have a different quarterback. We may need different people playing. Right? You may need somebody who's a little faster on the edges than you thought before. We thought we were going to big body and compress them down. Now we need somebody who is faster and won't compete to the outside, right?
My intention was so and so was going to play the majority of the snaps. Now we have a different problem that will require us to move within that. In that, I, as the coach, have to communicate that. And it's not just, Oh, you're terrible. Get out of there. No, it's, Hey, you know what? This guy's faster than we planned [00:30:00] for.
We need some speed at the outside. You know, like, and just even things like that, giving somebody an understanding of what we're doing and what we're thinking and why we're making decisions shows a whole lot of respect, and in that, a lot of the times players will give you respect. And then after that is, again, communicating those things and hopefully doing a good job communicating throughout the processes.
Right. Yeah. I'm glad. And I'm glad you mentioned the communication because that's the essential part of the intention, right? Is how do I know what your intentions are if you're not communicating them to me, telling me, okay, what's your vision for what we're trying to do here? What are our goals? What do you see?
As an athlete, what do you see for me going all the way back to when you started coaching, but what, how, what is do you, are you intending to create Okay. opportunities for me here on the team in the future how, like, how is my time here? [00:31:00] A well spent investment in whatever's to come next.
And at every level and particularly every level before the professional level, right? There's a certain number of high percentage of those athletes and student athletes that this is, their final level. This is it for them, and there's others that, okay, maybe I'm going to go on to whatever's the next level, but I still need to believe.
That this is a good use of my time, that the commitment and investment I'm putting in here is worthwhile, that I'm part of something bigger than myself, that right, all of those various things that when they break down, it's very hard to keep an organization together because it's what's my motivation, for example, to be bench player on a high school team, right?
Well, I need to believe that there's more going on there than just whatever is my own eventual outcome, [00:32:00] because what role is that? And that's about communicating that and understanding the importance of that and You know, we've all seen those thin sidelines, right, where you say, man, this is a really big school.
How come there's so few players on this team? Well, something's not happening there to make all, everybody on that team feel like they're a part of that team. And feel like they're an important part and they're contributing to whatever happens if the team wins a game, even if you weren't the one that was on the field scoring the touchdown, you contributed to that.
And again, relationships, communication, right, intentionality.
Right, and then understanding the individuals on the team, not just what they can do, but who they are. I consulted with a cross country team years ago, and they were having trouble with unity. Right. And it was interesting because the top runner's best friend. Was on the team, but was the slowest runner and it was kind of a struggle, [00:33:00] right?
I'm leaving my friend behind this, that, and the other. Well, it turns out that runner was really running because it was her best friend. It wasn't her passion, but she she was fine. She was solid and. But she was a great artist and I told the coach, I was like, okay, so get her more involved.
Well, I don't know how to get her involved. Have her come up with a mascot for the cross country team. She draws, right? Yep, right. Have her design a shirt. For the team that they could wear, whether it be game day or whatever and get her involved that way, because think about how happy her best friend, who is your captain, who is your fastest runner would be to be able to rep her friend's shirt.
Right.
And she was like, Oh my gosh, I never thought of that. Well, you never thought to ask, but there's different ways to get different people involved and to add value. Do you have to have those conversations? Do you have to be willing to[00:34:00] to dig in? And find those talents. I would be looking for those talents, my teammates.
Do we have somebody who's great with lyrics? Great. Can you do a theme song for us? You know, what are the other ways that we can bring your talents into this atmosphere and let you shine? Maybe you're shining. I mean, you might be a starter and have those talents. Great. You might be somebody else.
Great. But we are more than just Yeah. What we do on a field no matter how good we are at it. So how can we get more people to take pride in what we're doing here? And those are that becomes being open as a coach and giving some of that ownership back to your team and the more that they have voice and they have involvement, the more likely when you say, okay, this is how we're going to do this element that they're going to be like, okay coach.
Because you gave them freedom in certain aspects of the team, right? Some areas you can't, but some you damn sure can. And[00:35:00] and I think that's important to remember that those things are important too.
Yeah. Jen, you also have founded an organization called Gridiron Girls. There's multiple R's
And the girl is girl because no one was giving girls opportunities.
Um, tell me, Tell us about that.
iT is confidence through football and teaching girls there is no game they cannot play and no field they do not belong in or on. We've done I think about 57 girls camps across the country now. And it gives me you know, a tangible way to be the woman I needed when I was growing up. I think it's important.
I don't think. that there are enough visible female role models, and I say visible very intentionally. There are great women doing a lot of things, but if the women don't see them, they don't know, or the girls don't see them, they don't know that they can be them. So for me, I took that as a challenge, and I thought of it as if I wasn't the woman who was there to change this for them, then the wrong woman was the first [00:36:00] female to coach in the NFL.
Are there what's the, what progress have you seen or maybe created? Maybe it hasn't just happened in girls football from the time when you played till now. And you know, I'm sure we have parents and coaches who have daughters or work with girls who are, haven't maybe thought about this as a sport.
Right.
flag football is the fastest growing sport point blank you know, it is the one that has the furthest to go, which is why you see exponential growth right now for girls in flag football specifically, you can now go to college on a football scholarship as a flag football player, so girls for the first time in the history of the sport can change the trajectory of their lives through education by playing football, that's a game changer.
Right? That point blank guys who played their way out of such and such girls can play their way out to or their way up into where they want to be in this world. And that's special because that was [00:37:00] never there for football. You could do it in other sports, but it wasn't there for football. And so, that's the biggest change.
And that happened three years ago. The NAIA was the first league to add. Then you had the NJCAA. And next, the Atlantic Conference is adding in 2025. So, just really very fast growing. More and more sports are offering high school flag football as a varsity sport. It used to be that there were just four, but now, so many are adding that I couldn't give you a list of all the states off the top of my head anymore.
And so, it's just, it's really exciting and You know, I've helped launch programs. That's really what Gridiron Girls does. For a lot of programs, it might have, they might have had a boys league and then they wanted to expand to girls. And so we would partner with them and help create an environment where the girls felt good.
They wanted to come out on the field and then. Hey, the girls are yours, right? Like, it's your league, so we helped attract them, but then you're gonna be the one [00:38:00] who, as I lovingly say, I was the sizzle, but you'll be the substance on a day to day basis, but I was able to help with my team come in and set the standard that the girls knew everything that they needed to be able to step in any game of streetball, any game of You know, PE or whatever, or another co ed camp and know that you're not fundamentally behind.
You at least could get the fundamentals to feel good. And there was, and it was in an environment where confidence was put into everything that we do. And so just for me, those are the important things to do. And that's how we shift culture. And so, I mean, you'll see flag football as an Olympic sport likely in 2028.
And you know, to me, that's about as good as it gets in terms of progress.
Yeah. Yeah. And for listeners who may not be familiar, I mean, flag football is a fast growing sport for boys and girls. And in a lot of places becoming a right. Formalized varsity sport rather than an intramural sport and getting a lot of traction and having a lot of [00:39:00] participation. So, but it's great in particular for girls to have more and more opportunities there to to have programs that are designed for them and with intentionality and I think as one of our kind of last topics here, I mean, that, Certainly seems to be near to you is not only the opportunity, but the obligation that coaches and people in positions of influence have to create opportunities for the next group whether that is expanding opportunities for people who haven't had it before, or thinking ahead and finding untapped opportunities.
Talent or right. Or are individuals who haven't been included before and how do we get them involved? You mentioned the example, right. With the track team and the logo it's, there's a million different ways for that to happen, but to say, okay, not only is it smart from a [00:40:00] coaching perspective to say, who's.
What can we do differently? Right? Because if we're just doing the same thing everybody else is doing, maybe if we're lucky enough that we just have better athletes than everybody else, then that'll be fine. But other than that we probably need to try something new. But two the reason I'm in this position to have influence is so that I can use that for a positive.
What do you think about that? Or how would you pose that to other coaches to think about
I mean, you just said it, right? Like you are as a coach, you're the person who was entrusted in having that role in somebody's life and that role, yes, it's sports, but it's life and the sports lessons. People always say that sports can change your lives and can do all these things.
It can. But it has to be done with intention to ensure that those those opportunities are positive ones there, there are a [00:41:00] lot of not great human first coaches out there who have tremendous technical skill, but have not yet turned the page and to realize that they have The opportunity to change someone's life by being a great human.
And I, I don't buy into the fact that it's just it's just your job to get them to play better. I don't. Especially if you're not talking at the top of the top professional level and not most of those kids are not going to make the top level. You have an opportunity to be a great influence on these kids.
Where they are at the age that they are, and I'll tell you people will tell you I'll put as much energy into coaching special needs kids or girls as they do the boys when I'm out there, it's no, it's not close as good enough. You deserve to be coached well, and you deserve to be treated well in the process, and those two are not inseparable.
And I think we need to get away from the thinking that you just got [00:42:00] to grind them out. Why? You can get the same work ethic and be good to people in the process. You don't have to cuss them out. You don't have to throw things. You don't have to tear them down. You don't have to tear them down to build them up.
Like, you can actually just be honest and push people, but you don't have to pressure them to the point that you break some because we lose too many kids from sports because of environment.
Yeah, absolutely. Jen, one last thing we need to get on the record here. So you shattered the glass sideline, right, in the NFL. Also, I believe it was 2020 and you were the first female coach in Madden. So which one means more to you?
Well I think they work hand in hand. You know, I love that we were able to do that with Madden because you're reaching a whole bunch of different kids. There are kids that maybe never had an opportunity to have me as their coach, but they could play me in Madden and[00:43:00] I have.
Absolutely had kids who knew me from Madden that didn't know I coached from the Cardinals. And so I think it's really important when we look at how do we shift culture, right? It's about shifting it into multiple points of entry in any place that we can open people's minds. That means we're opening possibilities and likely opening doors.
And so to me. It's not about one or the other. Though I think the cool factor probably goes to Madden.
Yeah, how many players, right, that grew up playing the game that get drafted into the league and say, well, this is when I know it's real, is when I'm in that game. Because that's that's what really makes it official. Before we close anything else you're working on now that you'd like to tell listeners about?
And where can listeners learn more about your work?
Yeah, I mean, obviously I do a lot of things. I think that's just being a creator in life. The more opportunities we have to impact people, the [00:44:00] better. The majority of my business, I spend time now speaking as a public speaker when I'm not coaching. So, I try and keep a balance told my mom when I was a kid that I was either going to be an athlete or an actress and I get to do a little bit of both now.
And so that's a really good life balance for me. And I think. I think we need more of those positive voices to lift people up and show them what's possible in this world. So I'm the best speaker you never had. Just kidding. But so that's a good one. A couple other projects I can't really talk about, but that's a good one to focus on.
Excellent. So listeners will have the links below in the show notes to jenwelter. com and to Jen's social media handles. So please do check those out and you can learn more about those projects when they're available. Please do also subscribe to the show, Sideline Sessions, to hear the rest of our fall season.
A number of great episodes coming up from coaches from all across the sporting landscape. Some really interesting things that you won't want to miss. Also do visit the [00:45:00] podcast. network to learn about all of our other shows. We have about 30 of them now, so there's plenty there for you. Dr. Jen Welter, thanks so much for being on Sideline Session.
You got it. Thank you so much.