SUFRA-JET
Team tabs its 1st woman coach for preseason
GANG GREEN is breaking new ground.
The New York Jets plan to hire their first woman assistant coach, an intern who will work this summer with the defensive backs during training camp, sources said Thursday.
Colette Smith, 44, is currently a coach and marketing executive with the New York Sharks, a member of the Independent Women’s Football League.
The hard-hitting Smith played for the Sharks for three years before being sidelined by a knee injury.
“I’m over the top. I’m humbled and I’m proud,” said the Queens native, who is a lifelong Jets fan. “This could have happened with any NFL team. But it just so happened that it was with my beloved New York Jets. This is bigger because of that. God forbid it would have been with the Patriots. But I still would have done it.”
Smith turned her practicefield access last year into a chance to shadow the the Jets’ defensive backfield. There, she met head coach Todd Bowles, who could immediately tell she was serious about the game.
“He called over all the defensive backs,” Smith said. “He told them who I was and that I’d be hanging around from time to time. Everybody was polite and respectful.”
Smith will follow in the footsteps of Jen Welter, the first woman to hold a coaching position in the NFL.
In 2015, Welter was hired by the Arizona Cardinals as a preseason intern by that team’s head coach, Bruce Arians, Bowles’ mentor. Bowles played for Arians in college at Temple University, and was his defensive coordinator in Arizona.
A representative for the Jets declined to comment on the move.
Former Sharks head coach Richard Harrigan made Smith one of his assistants after she hurt her knee.
“She’s a phenomenal person,” Harrigan said. “She wears her heart on her sleeve.”
Smith said she knows her magical NFL ride may be over before the season even starts. But she’s ready to take the ball and run with it as far as she can go.
“We as women carry a lot on our shoulders,” Smith said. “Right now, it happens to be football for me.
“This is a way for me to help empower women. Don’t dream small, play big and go for it.
“One day a woman will come to a football team, and it won’t be a big story. It’ll just be football. When that day comes I’ll be more honored and even more proud.”