The month of January is not only known for NFL playoff football, but also for college football All-Star games. One all-star making headlines isn’t a player, she was a coach for the East team at the East-West Shrine game this past weekend in St. Petersburg, Fla.
Katie Sowers is the athletic director at the Kansas City Parks and Recreation Department and she’s always loved the game of football. She has played football, coached football, and because she got to know former Chiefs General Manager Scott Pioli when he was in town, she got to know former Kansas football coach Charlie Weis, who coached in Saturday’s game.
Both Pioli and Weis are strong believers in diversity so when Sowers was asked to be an assistant at the Shrine game, she said yes.
Along with Weis, the coaching staff included some familiar NFL names like Mike Alstott, Dave Moore, Brady Quinn, and Sam Madison. And among them calling shots on the sidelines was Katie Sowers.
Her title was Assistant to the Head Coach but she basically served as the receivers position coach. For Sowers, coaching at that level was a long time coming.
“I’m the daughter of a collegiate basketball coach, so coaching was always kind of the path that I wanted to take,” Sowers said. “I played tons of different sports, finally came back to find out that there was a women’s football league and so when I started playing I realized that I could come back to that passion of coaching, and actually, playing and coaching the true sport that I’ve always loved is my number one, which is football.”
It’s a path Sowers had always wanted to follow, but for much of her life, thought wasn’t a reality.
“Having the opportunity to grow up thinking that football as a career for me as a woman would never be possible, to finding out that it could be possible, I mean that’s a step in itself,” Sowers explained. “My goal is to find a full-time career coaching whether that be, I would love to coach either at the NFL or the collegiate level. So that’s kind of my goal right now, but obviously, I love just leading people.”
Sowers said one of her immediate goals as athletic director of the Parks and Recreation Department is to help create and develop a women’s baseball league.
The East-West Shrine Game is the oldest college football all-star game in the country. The West came away with a 29-9 win.
