At Philly PR Girl, we love our Philadelphia Eagles, but we also love seeing women breaking the glass ceiling in male-dominated industries. Although we were sad to not see the Birds in Super Bowl LIV, we were happy to see San Francisco 49ers’ coach Katie Sowers make history as the first female and the first openly LGBT person to coach in a Super Bowl.
The offensive assistant coach was born and raised in Kansas and went on to play basketball and soccer and ran track and field as Goshen College in Indiana. After graduating in 2009 and interviewing for an opening in the women’s basketball coaching staff, Sowers was denied the job because of her sexual orientation.
After being denied the job, Sowers played in the Women’s Football Alliance for eight years. Eventually, Sowers started to coach fifth-grade girls’ basketball, where she would find her big break.
Scott Pioli, a longtime NFL front office executive, witnessed Sowers’ coaching abilities since his daughter was a member of that fifth-grade basketball team. When he joined the Atlanta Falcons as an Assistant General Manager, he offered Sowers a coaching internship. She stayed with the Falcons until she was hired by the San Francisco 49ers through the Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellowship, which works to create more diverse coaching staffs throughout the NFL.
Sowers worked as a seasonal offensive assistant from 2017-2019 when she was promoted to offensive assistant. In her first season in this new role, the 49ers won the NFC West division, the NFC championship, and eventually lost to the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIV.
During the Super Bowl, Sowers appeared in a Microsoft commercial. The commercial showed Sowers reading her childhood diary and showed a clip of her as a child playing football in her backyard. “I always wanted to be a coach. I never saw an opportunity in football because I had never seen a female coach before,” she says. “People tell me that people aren’t ready to have a woman lead, but these guys have been learning from women their whole lives.”
Sowers is paving the way for women and girls all over the world. Don’t be afraid to chase your dreams, and if you work hard enough, those dreams can come true. Sowers is our woman crush this Wednesday for her amazing accomplishments, her fearlessness, and her passion. Let’s all take a page out of Katie’s book and strive to be the best version of ourselves today and every day.
Follow Katie on Twitter and Instagram for endless inspiration and empowerment.
