I never wanted to be the first, Callie Brownson said of becoming the first full-time female assistant coach for a Division 1 football team. I just wanted to live in a time when it was possible.

That time is now, and it just so happens that Brownson is the first. She broke that ceiling earlier this year, when Dartmouth offered her a job as an assistant offensive coach after a two-week internship and a lifetime of refusing to accept that the sport she loved could not make space for her.

Though she embraces becoming the first woman to achieve the feat, she is swift to assert that gender doesnt influence her approach to the game as much as the deficit of female football coaches might suggest.

At the end of the day, sports are a universal language, she said. It doesnt matter if youre a man or a woman. It matters if you know your stuff.