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Katie Sowers was a member of Kyle Shanahan’s teaching employees the final time the San Francisco 49ers had been within the Tremendous Bowl. That was again in 2020, when the Niners took on the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs, whom Sowers would be a part of as an offensive assistant the next season.
Gamers from these squads whom Sowers coached — Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, George Kittle, Deebo Samuel, and Nick Bosa — shall be enjoying within the rematch.
Oh, and Sowers can also be a local of Kansas Metropolis.
So the place does her allegiance lie for Tremendous Bowl LVIII?
“I need the Chiefs to win, and I need the Niners to win,” Sowers instructed Deadspin. “As loopy as that sounds. Truthfully, I’m torn. I don’t actually assume I’ll know who I’m cheering for till the sport begins. Truthfully.
“Dwelling in Kansas Metropolis, I’ve seen the superb issues {that a} successful crew does,” she stated. “However take me again 4 years in the past, that ache of shedding to the Chiefs, who I believed was the enemy at the moment, it’s actually an odd feeling to see this matchup once more and virtually be introduced again to a few of these emotions that you just had.”
That Tremendous Bowl was additionally a historic second for Sowers as she grew to become the primary overtly homosexual and first feminine coach within the historical past of the Large Sport.
“At occasions, it felt like a film,” Sowers instructed Deadspin. “It wasn’t solely a dream to be there as a result of we had been enjoying a crew so near my coronary heart within the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs, however it actually was a dream come true. Being in that ambiance in Miami and strolling out of the tunnel listening to a whole lot of followers screaming for me, a low-level coach, to really feel that sort of assist was unreal.”
Sowers’ love for soccer dates again to enjoying in her neighborhood with different children and her twin sister, Liz. As they had been rising up, yearly for Christmas they’d ask for footballs, pads, and different gear so they may play and hit one another.
She was capable of play professionally with the West Michigan Mayhem and Kansas Metropolis Titans within the Ladies’s Soccer Alliance. Sowers was additionally a member of the U.S. girls’s nationwide American soccer crew that received the 2013 Worldwide Federation of American Soccer Ladies’s World Championship.
She retired in 2016 after struggling a hip harm.
“I ended up again in Kansas Metropolis,” Sowers stated. “I wished to maintain teaching, so I ended up teaching fifth-grade basketball, and Scott Pioli’s daughter was on the crew.”
Pioli was the GM of the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs earlier than assuming the identical function with the Atlanta Falcons. He had gotten to know S0wers and her love for soccer, and introduced her to Atlanta as an intern.
“I noticed Becky Hammon teaching within the NBA,” Sowers recalled. “That was the second it hit me. How might I’ve not thought of this concept of teaching soccer?”
With the Falcons, she obtained to fulfill Shanahan, who introduced her over to San Francisco.
“After I first obtained to the 49ers we weren’t an amazing crew,” Sowers instructed Deadspin. “I keep in mind going 0-9 and I keep in mind after {that a} actually horrible season.”
That “horrible season” was when Jimmy Garapolo tore his ACL and San Francisco completed the season 4-12. Nonetheless, Sowers stayed dedicated to Shanahan and the crew, and so they had been rewarded a 12 months later with a Tremendous Bowl look.
Now, Sowers and her sister coach collectively at Ottawa College in Kansas. Her crew lately received their third straight NAIA Championship. Sowers says that some persons are disenchanted she didn’t proceed her NFL journey, however she feels that her present function helps soccer develop greater than ever earlier than.
“I’m now ready the place I’m teaching a number of the greatest athletes I’ve ever coached,” Sowers instructed Deadspin. “They occur to be girls, they occur to be throwing the identical soccer and so they do it at a particularly excessive stage. These are elite athletes that, for my part, have finished extra for the sport of soccer than these superstars as a result of they’re trailblazers. They’re opening alternatives for ladies which have by no means had an opportunity. It was an enormous transition at first however I’ve fallen in love with the sport another time.”
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