Glenn, USD football host women’s clinic

Before USD head football coach Joe Glenn takes the field for the annual Red vs. White game Saturday afternoon, he will hit the gridiron with a much different group of players.

The USD football staff, as well as Glenn and his wife Michele, will play host to a women’s football clinic Friday.

Glenn has put on women’s clinics at his previous schools.

“It’s something we’ve all been involved in at other schools, and we thought it would be an entertaining event,” Glenn said.

Director of Football Operations Luke Groth has put together the event hoping to give women a basic knowledge of football.

“We really want to reach out to women in our fan base — moms of our players, incoming freshmen we have and especially Howling Pack members and season ticket holders,” Groth said.  “Some women don’t necessarily know the x’s and o’s part of football, so we want to get some basic football knowledge to these women and also give them a behind-the-scenes look of what our players go through on a daily basis.”

All women are invited to attend the event to learn all about football or expand their knowledge on the sport.

“It is a fun moment for the women to get together and do something maybe outside of their comfort zone and have a little fun with it,” Glenn said. “Some of them might know more about football than we do.”

Glenn said if men want to learn about football, they can go talk to him in his office any day.

The clinic will give women an opportunity to go behind the scenes of Coyote football and give them an idea of a day in the life of the players. The women will be shown the weight room and given a presentation and workout by head strength and conditioning coach Jevon Bowman as well as player demonstrations. They will also head to the classroom where they will learn the basics of offense and defense as well as simple plays.

Glenn said he hopes the women will maybe pick up an idea of what an idea or philosophy of football is.

“We are not going to get into how to run a draw play against a split defense. We’re going to try and cover some things we feel you need to know to be knowledgeable about the game of football,” Glenn said. “Be able to sit down, watch a game on TV and know exactly what’s happening and have a basic understanding of the rules.”

Groth said he is excited the plans went through to run the event this year and hopes to expand the event in the coming years.  This is the first time the Coyotes will host an event like this.

“When this becomes a good event, I think it will grow to 100-150 people,” Groth said. “We’ve had a lot of positive feedback from women on campus. We do a lot of work with admissions and financial aid and student services — the areas we use — and we invited all the women who work there. We want to be able to give back.”

Groth also said in the future he would like to connect with a sponsor to run the event or get together with a local charity and give back to the community.  He also hopes to get the event attendance up to 150 people in the next couple of years. 

Students are still in school so  they can attend if they so choose.  The team invited somen on campus they work with such as admissions and financial aid to give back to the USD community. 

Redshirt sophomore Kelly Stewart; member of the Coyote Women’s basketball team, said what Coyote football is doing is great.  

“It is a good learning experience for women to get a real life experience with drills and give them a better relation with the sport,” Stewart said. 

The event starts at 6 p.m. April 25 at the DakotaDome.  Groth said he is excited for the event and said Glenn and his wife, Michele, who will be a big part of the event, are extremely excited.

“Coach Glenn’s personality and passion for coaching is incredible. He just bleeds Coyote red and loves this place,” Groth said. “He wants our coaching staff to take away from coaching our players and to be able to reach out to some of our fan base that might not know a lot about football and try to help and encourage them.”