“The football coach at my college opened his training program to...

“The football coach at my college opened his training program to any athlete who wanted to join, even women. I was captain of the volleyball team, so I decided to give it a try. The program was military style. We woke up at 5 AM. And Coach Brooks himself was a very intimidating man. He’d been an All-American lineman in college, and he was still massive. Everyone called him ‘sir.’ And he didn’t tolerate misbehavior. But I’ve always loved structure, so I could keep up. Within weeks Coach Brooks had elevated me to program captain. He stood me in front of seventy athletes, almost entirely male. He watched me break the woman’s deadlift record. And when the quarterback made a comment about ‘lifting girl weight,’ Coach Brooks heard about it. And the quarterback apologized the next day. That kind of advocacy gave me a lot of confidence. After graduation I decided to attend a women’s tackle football game. And as I flipped through the program, reading the bios of the players, I realized that none of them had trained with a male college team. So I emailed the team’s owner and asked about tryouts. I ended up playing professionally for six years. And Coach Brooks followed my entire career. He loved that I was a lineman, just like him. He’d go to our website and check my stats. He hung our team shirt in his gym, and asked for another to give his goddaughter. Unfortunately his life was cut short at the age of 47. It was a routine surgery gone wrong. When I heard the news, I was so devastated that I had to leave work early. Only then did I realize the impact he’d had on me. He didn’t have to give a damn. He didn’t have to let women in his program. That wasn’t his job. But if he hadn’t, I’d never have had the confidence to play football. It’s too much sacrifice. I have seventeen pieces of metal in my leg. And I’m not paid to do this. Almost no women are paid to play any freaking sport. So when I had to dig deep, and find a reason to go on, I thought back to my time with Coach Brooks. After his death, I called his old college to find some pictures of him on the field. And that year, when we won the world championship, it was his number I was wearing on my chest.”