Making my way into the huddle

If you asked my friend Kamryn about me she would say that I am pretty cool but I talk about football too much. If you asked my players about me they would tell you I am lame and like to make them suffer (they would also tell you that they miss me).

Growing up I was the youngest of three, and had two older brothers who were obsessed with football. I spent as much time sitting at their games and practices, as I did playing sports of my own. I was obsessed with anything sports related and played anything that I could pack into my schedule.

I especially loved competing in and winning the punt, pass, kick competitions my hometown put on. 

As I got older I became more enamored with football and watching my brothers play. In middle school I watched my oldest brother excel in high school football and my other brother kick some butt in middle school football. 

When I got to high school I was asked by our athletic trainer if I wanted to work with our football team as a student trainer and I fell more in love with the game. 

The longer I spent working with football the more I wanted to make a career out of it. I went to college with the dream of becoming a certified athletic trainer but that dream quickly changed when I saw how much being a college strength and conditioning coach can impact athletes. 

This is where everything changed. I set to work changing my major and I set out to try and build my resume to be able to work at the college level. 

This past summer I got the opportunity to work at University of Colorado Boulder with the football strength and conditioning department. It was a unique opportunity getting to work and learn from a national strength and conditioning coach of the year as well as 4 other coaches from all different backgrounds who focused solely on football. 

In college, football players spend more time in the weightroom and with the strength coaches than they do anywhere else. You have the unique opportunity to impact and build up your athletes self confidence as well as play a vital part in the rehab portion of injuries as a strength and conditioning coach. 

This fall I coached high school football and they tested every bit of patience I have ever had. 

I hope that they learned as much from me as I learned from them. While high school boys are not the easiest group on the planet it was a great learning tool on how best to communicate instructions to athletes. They also think they are the funniest humans and coolest cats alive. 

I wouldn’t trade them for the world, although I did think about it when they wouldn’t listen to me. 

Football is a boys club and proving my knowledge and worth is a steep challenge. As a female in football I have to prove my knowledge every step of the way even though I have the same schooling as my peers. 

Even my players have made backhanded comments about me never having played football when they don’t agree with something I said. 

I am judged from the moment I step onto the field because of my gender. No one would bat an eye about a man stepping on the field because it is automatically assumed that all men know football. 

As a female I am not allowed to misstep when talking about football otherwise it is believed I know nothing. I want to break down barriers so all the women following behind me do not have to work as hard. 

And while there is nothing else that I would rather do, it shouldn’t be something I have to do.

By Madyson Schliep