Making History in a Male Dominated Field: Kathryn Smith
Lisa Thompson
Written by contributor writer Gabriella Hoffman
Kathryn Smith is defying all odds as becoming the first female full time coach in an extremely male dominated field, the National Football League. She was named the Buffalo Bills Special Teams Quality Control Coach.
This announcement came on January 21 as Smith enters her 14th season in the NFL. Smith is no stranger to the game. Her athletic past brought her to this opportunity. While in high school, she was on the swimming and lacrosse teams. And it’s no surprise Smith was active with the football team, working with her father to keep statistics on the team each season.
During an interview on Buffalo Bills Radio with John Murphy, Smith speaks with excitement and a robust sense of opportunity in her voice,
“This is an amazing opportunity.”
While listening to this interview, I quickly noticed how humble she was as she has been the center of NFL media attention over the past four days, she commented saying
“There are definitely women holding pretty important role [in the NFL], women in this league are getting more high profile jobs.”
When asked about the media’s response of this announcement, she was asked; Do you feel like a trailblazer?
“There are so many women that in sports, in football, there are a lot women around in this organization.”
It was enlightening to see that she through this media hype she doesn’t place herself on a pedestal, she believes she in great company with other women in the industry, gaining similar jobs in this multimillion dollar male dominated industry.
Smith became interested in studying Sports Management in college; she then was a college scouting intern. For these reasons, when asked if this was a lifelong goal, she responded that:
“I always wanted to grow my coaching career, so this is great place to start. This is entry level coaching job.”
I believe Smith will not stop the career grow anytime soon, she has the passion to carry her through. With this being an entry level job the role with continue to expand and she will keep working hard, it will take a lot of film work, learning the play book and a lot studying.
From the sounds of it, Smith plans to immerse herself in this role and learn as much as she can from those she looks up to in the industry. In closing to the interview she was asked how she is going to manage the new career and the media hype: her simple response,
“Focus on the work and work hard.”
Plain and simple, Smith doesn’t plan to get caught up in the media hype has she enters the NFL as the first female full- time coach for the Buffalo Bills.
Smith continues to be a huge role model to young women out their aspiring to follow their own dreams and succeed.
