Dr. Jen Welter leads girls-only football and technology camp in Wynwood
Not many people can inspire confidence like Dr. Jen Welter.
But as the first female coach in NFL history, Welter has made a career of telling people— especially girls — that barriers are meant to be broken.
“There’s no game [girls] cannot play and field they do not belong in or on,” Welter said in a phone interview Thursday.
It’s part of the reason why Welter hosted her Kick [Gl]ass Sports and Tech Camp at Jose De Diego Middle during Super Bowl week. Presented by the Win-Win Foundation, the event taught girls how to play football as well as code.
“We wanted to give all those girls a little bit of that Super Bowl magic,” Welter continued. “How tragic would it be if all of Miami is overtaken by the Super Bowl but there’s not great opportunity for girls like there are for boys?”
Tech and football are two areas where women, particularly those of color, have been historically shut out. Data from 2019 shows women make up roughly 22 percent of the workforce at Google, Amazon, Facebook and Microsoft. Jennifer King only recently became the the league’s first African-American woman coach.
It’s clear that a diversity issue exists but why does this disparity continue? Mike Brown, the founder and CEO of Win-Win, points to a lack of exposure.
“That lack of diversity really comes from early on [with] these preconceived notions of what girls can and can’t do or should and shouldn’t do,” former NFL player said.
Welter added: “Traditionally, boys have been socialized to go out and throw a football with their dad and maybe not those same opportunities for the girls.”
While this was Brown’s first girls-only camp, he started the sports/technology events a couple years ago. The idea came from his own experience and just knowing the slim margins of playing professional sports.
“My thought was ‘What if we can leverage this excitement and attentiveness to expose them to something that 100-percent of them can use?’ which was coding and technology,” Brown explained.
Pairing with Welter was just a perfect match.
“She’s already doing these amazing Grrridiron Girls camps, where it’s just girls,” Brown said. “I wanted to combine and partner so we could bring these two things together.”
The day started with the group of nearly 100 girls being split into two sections. One learned the basics of coding in the morning as the other received football coaching before the two switched at lunch. By the end of the day, the teenagers knew everything from how to read a 3-4 to the fundamental programming terms.
“I noticed that the girls were a lot more comfortable because there weren’t any boys,” Brown said. “... They kind of got this special treatment, if you will, that kind of opened them up.”
Welter’s self-assurance and commitment to excellence ultimately endeared her to the girls. The former NFL coach patented energy was on full display from the very beginning when she asked to be reintroduced because the crowd’s welcoming wasn’t loud enough.
“When we’re loud and rowdy, that’s how we know we’re doing a good job,” Welter told the girls at the time.
Something like this could’ve been a deal breaker for a teenager. Andrea Lopez, 14, says she didn’t even want to be there. Welter’s liveliness, however, was contagious.
“When they said ‘Do you’ and own the field, I did and I’m enjoying it,” the middle school student said. “... the way she teaches us is just great.”
That sort of turnaround is why Welter loves her job. For someone who grew up around football yet never saw anyone who looked like her, the Vero Beach native understands the importance of visibility.
“I’ve done 34 girls camps across the country now. And with every single one of them, it’s giving these girls permission to dream football, see themselves in it and realize that not only is football possible, but anything’s possible.”
This story was originally published February 10, 2020 at 12:50 PM.
