Autumn Lockwood will be the first woman of color to coach in the biggest game of the year.
After the national anthem and the opening kickoff officially begin Super Bowl LVII on Sunday, something even more significant will take place: For the very first time, a woman of color will be on the sidelines as part of a coaching staff. Morgantown native Autumn Lockwood is a sports performance coach for the Philadelphia Eagles.
Lockwood joined the Eagles in 2022 after working as coordinator of sports performance at the University of Houston, according to a Scripps News review of her career. Before that, she earned a master’s degree in sports management from East Tennessee State University and worked primarily with the men’s and women’s basketball teams.
Prior to her professional career, Lockwood was a soccer star at University High School and played for the Mountaineer United Soccer Club. She played soccer at the University of Arizona, where she honed her skills, directing the strength and conditioning program along with warm-ups for the university’s cheerleading team.
As a sports performance coach, Lockwood is focused on maximizing the performance potential of each player, she explains in her LinkedIn profile. She is tasked with finding ways for athletes to get stronger and faster and move efficiently. She believes in sound strength and conditioning programs that have a core basis around functional movements.
In addition to being the first woman of color to coach at the Super Bowl, Lockwood is only the fourth woman coach to be part of the game, and her milestone appearance comes as four of the six full-time female coaches in the league are women of color. At the start of the 2022 NFL season, a total of 15 women throughout the league were in coaching positions. This number of women coaches is the most in any professional men’s league.
The Super Bowl will take place on February 12 in Glendale, Arizona, when the Philadelphia Eagles meet the Kansas City Chiefs. The game features an epic match-up between Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts. This is the first time both Super Bowl teams are led by black quarterbacks.
History is being made during Black History Month.
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