By John Brice
Special Contributor
The titles range from director of operations to lead dietician to athletic trainer to physical therapist to associate athletics director for strategic communications.
There are more.
Their roles, however, reflect the top-down investment in Notre Dame football that delves deep beyond any moniker.
They are the women of Notre Dame football:
Olivia Mitchell (Director of Football Operations); Nina Baloun (Assistant Director of Football Operations); Courtney McNamara (Athletic Trainer/Physical Therapist); Mandy Merritt (Athletic Trainer); Reilly Fangman and Joy McCausland (Program Assistants); Alexa Appelman (Lead Dietician); Catherine Carbeck (Secondary Dietitian); Mackenzie Zanow (Football Director of On-Campus Recruiting); Zaire Turner (Assistant Director of On-Campus Recruiting); Katy Lonergan (Associate Athletics Director, Strategic and Football Communications); Emily Ragan (Fighting Irish Media, Video Producer); Boston Logan (Fighting Irish Media, Assistant Art Director).
And on the 37th annual National Girls and Women in Sports Day, the touch of these 13 professionals in Irish football and myriad more across campus reflects a top-down emphasis and program with one of the richest sets of indispensable involvement in all of collegiate athletics.
“Why not? Why because of gender would you not hire someone, or race or anything, when it’s about the value they can provide to our program?,” asked second-year Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman. “I think it’s so powerful, the impact that they have on us and the example they can help us set.
“We’re not hiring anybody just to say we’re hiring women. I’m all about empowerment and bringing in the best talent we can for every role in our program. I feel having these women in our program brings a lot, and it also is about real-life. This is how it’s going to be out in the world.”
Consider the words of Fighting Irish linebacker Jack Kiser, a fifth-year anchor on the defense, as he discusses the ability to visit with Lonergan or Mitchell to discuss everything from a bad day on the practice field to a good day in the classroom and countless social issues as well.
“For some reason, they just have an energy that they bring to the building every day,” Kiser says from within Notre Dame’s football headquarters, the Guglielmino Athletics Complex. “You never catch one of them who work here without a smile, without bringing an energy and helping keep us up or cheering guys up.
“They’re a huge part of our program.”
As much as Freeman embraces the opportunity to empower those within the Notre Dame program, the charismatic former heralded defensive architect and “son of a Korean mother and Air Force father” also relishes the example his organization illustrates to the six-pack of children Freeman shares with wife and college sweetheart, Joanna.
“I think it’s important for men but also women to see women in football,” Freeman said. “I want my daughters to see women working in football and to say, ‘That could be me’ if they want it to be.
“They can see all around them and it’s not just minorities or white and black males or females. It’s all those different scenarios. It’s life, and life isn’t one type of person. Life is all-encompassing and all people that can all come together. I want our players and everyone who touches our program to see that.”
Veteran Irish running back Chris Tyree, back for a final season at Notre Dame when his path could have been divergent, sees in Notre Dame football not only the embodiment of the type of program Freeman drives into existence but also examples of those women in the program who quite frankly remind him of his mother, Michelle.
“For me, personally, it just gives me a breath of fresh air with the women in our program who are always there to help us, who are invested in us,” said Tyree. “Coach Freeman talks about bringing a family atmosphere to program, and they show that. They’re always there with a smile to uplift us, cheer us up when we’re down.
“I think it’s really good, that example. My mom did really good job setting a great example for me of a strong woman, and I think everyone in this program is doing the same thing. They’re just great people.”
His name synonymous with Irish football, Ron Powlus has touched the Notre Dame program for parts of four decades as heralded recruit, quarterback, assistant coach and now executive-level athletics administrator.
So when Powlus speaks about the women of Notre Dame football reflecting the broader mission for Our Lady’s University, it is with rich perspective – for both their impact and the sheer volume of presence after he recalled “two or three women” working in the Irish football program during his mid-1990s playing career.
“Notre Dame in all of the university’s mission has aimed to be thought-leaders and to be really impactful in approach,” said Powlus, whose son, Ron Powlus III, is a backup quarterback on Freeman’s roster. “And I think that football has been a part of that. As an alum, to know that diversity in all the different ways is important to our university certainly makes me proud.
“We want diversity in opportunities, perspectives, and in our thoughts to ensure we move forward in a great way and strive to be a force for good.”
There is no novelty within the Notre Dame community regarding the presence of these professionals; they are ensconced elements of Irish football’s everyday operations.
And across college football, as well as college athletics in general, there are growing strides in greater female and minority empowerment; Notre Dame is just days past naming Jen Vining-Smith as senior associate athletics director to head up the school’s industry-leading GLD Center (Grow, Lead, Do).
Yet the breadth of reach within Notre Dame football is singular.
From Lonergan’s side-by-side strategic work with arguably college football’s most visible head coach to the import of Zanow and Turner to ensure the lifeblood of the program – recruiting – is a seamless operation that invites families to send their sons to this northern Indiana hamlet to the tireless, oft-thankless work of every other member of this elite group of professionals, there is reach within all corners of the Irish program.
“One of Coach Freeman’s big principles is to treat everybody with equal respect,” Kiser said. “How could we do that if we did not have those female role models here in the building? It’s a great lesson. Everybody knows to treat their mom and their sisters well.
“When you step into this building and you don’t know the people and you have to develop relationships, they’re not just given to you like family, it takes a lot more effort. And then on top that, to be able to create such strong relationships within the building with these great professionals and to know you can go to them for anything.
“It starts with Coach Freeman, but it trickles down to all the women in our program as well, the example. It’s a big deal. It’s a great place to be at and be a part of.”
It is, as Kiser explains, an element of reassurance for all parents.
“I certainly hope it puts my mom and my parents at ease when they know type of standard we have here at Notre Dame, with Coach Freeman’s program and the people in it,” he said.