“I was just as shocked as anybody else was, but I embraced it because I love the game. I probably love football more than anything,” Terri Mims Bryant.
Terri Bryant is in her seventh season as an assistant football coach at Crawford Middle School, where she works alongside her husband, Cisco Bryant, a Jerry Claiborne wide receiver for the University of Kentucky.
“He decided to take the head football coach here. He made me his assistant head coach.”
Cisco has been coaching for 30+ years, so he doesn’t take finding the right coach lightly.
“If she couldn’t coach, I wouldn’t have did it. It wasn’t a gimmick,” shared Cisco. “The main objective is she knows what she’s doing, not because of her gender. She knows football.”
For current Wildcat safety Ty Bryant, having coaches in both his father and step-mom at home is quite a unique experience.
“It's really cool. I could just sit there and break down certain things and ask them certain questions. We have a unique relationship, I feel like.”
“I'm really proud because when I was young in high school, she talked about how she wanted to get into it," Ty reminisced. "And then my dad was really like her gateway to getting into it. And then ever since then, she's kind of just taken off. She's done a lot of incredible things.”
Things like being inducted into the Black Women Who Love Football Hall of Fame this summer, she also hosts her podcast, Wednesday nights at 9 p.m., Hits and Heels. She's also on staff for the Derby City Dynamite, the only women’s tackle football team to bring a national championship to Kentucky!!
By fulfilling her passions, she’s showing others what’s possible.
“I hope we're inspirational to just everybody in the community as far as allowing women in spaces that maybe they're not used to being in, especially in the football space,” Terri says.
“It's not that we're looking to come and take over. We just bring a different perspective. When you give a woman anything, we always multiply. If you give us food, we create a meal. If you give us a house, we create a home. So we always multiply whatever that we're given, and we can do that in different spaces as well too.”
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