鈥�00, the first female coach in the National Football League, is partnering with famed footwear brand to launch a series of girls鈥� flag football camps for underprivileged kids in cities across the U.S. in 2019. Welter, who holds a Ph.D. in psychology, will serve as a coach, mentor, and life-skills teacher at the camps.
鈥淔ootball is the final frontier for women in sports,鈥� Welter said in a statement. 鈥淚 always believed through football we could change the world.鈥�
The first camp was聽offered聽on a Saturday earlier this month at a predominantly African American high school in Atlanta, and adidas says it's making a multi-year commitment to the nationwide effort.聽According to Welter,聽the goal is nothing less than helping to achieve "equal footing in sports" for girls.
While at Boston College in the mid to late 1990s, Welter played club rugby and studied marketing and human resources at the Carroll School of Management. She made the dean鈥檚 list, was accepted into the Golden Key National Honor Society, and graduated magna cum laude.
Upon leaving the Heights, Welter played as a linebacker for the Massachusetts Mutiny of the National Women鈥檚 Football League and then the Dallas Diamonds of the Women鈥檚 Football Alliance, while earning a master鈥檚 in sport psychology and working toward her doctorate. In 2015, the NFL鈥檚 Arizona Cardinals hired her to coach inside linebackers during training camp and the preseason. She is currently the defensive specialist coach for the Atlanta Legends of the Alliance of American Football.
For more information, see the adidas , as well as previous coverage of Welter in , Boston College鈥檚 student newspaper.
鈥擯atrick L. Kennedy 鈥�99