Mount Vernon grad becomes first female Division I football coach

Callie Brownson, a 2008 graduate of Mount Vernon High School, has been hired as a full-time assistant football coach by Dartmouth College, making her the first female coach in Division I history.

Brownson will serve as a quality control offensive quality control coach, the school announced Tuesday. She was one of two coaching interns hired by Dartmouth prior to the season, and her performance in that role was impressive enough to win over Dartmouth’s players and head coach Buddy Teevens.

As seen in the video above, players slapped tables and gave her an ovation after Teevens announced her hiring during a recent team meeting.

“Callie is as good as anyone I’ve ever had in terms of her skill set, preparedness, attention to detail and passion,” said Teevens. “Players came up to me after a few days of preseason wondering if I would consider hiring her. She is a forward-thinking individual, very broad-minded. We had an opening, the preseason was kind of like a tryout and she excelled — on and off the field — every day.”

Brownson’s football background includes eight seasons with the D.C. Divas, where she played running back and defensive back and helped lead the squad to back-to-back championships in 2015 and 2016. She also played for Team USA Women’s Football in 2013 and 2017, helping those teams to gold medals.

Brownson interned in the scouting department for the New York Jets in 2017, and this past summer she coached at the Manning Passing Academy. That’s where she first caught the attention of Teevens, who had hired women coaches to lead a women’s football clinic.

“I asked all the coaches to submit … a practice plan,” Teevens said. “Hers was the most thorough, the most meticulous. She obviously put a lot of time and effort into it.”

At Mount Vernon, Brownson was a standout on the softball diamond, helping the Majors to a district championship her senior year. She later coached at Mount Vernon, both for the softball and football teams.