{"id":8388,"date":"2025-09-02T16:34:37","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T16:34:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/?p=8388"},"modified":"2025-09-02T16:34:37","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T16:34:37","slug":"troys-first-female-assistant-coach-makes-history-on-the-field","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/2025\/09\/02\/troys-first-female-assistant-coach-makes-history-on-the-field\/","title":{"rendered":"Troy’s first female assistant coach makes history on the field"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

TROY, Ala. (TROJANVISION<\/a>) \u2014 For three years, the Troy football team<\/a> has had a trailblazer on the sidelines, a woman who has proved football isn’t just a man’s game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McKenzie Bryant, a broadcast journalism student minoring in public relations, has always wanted to coach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I really didn’t realize the impact that it would have on other people,” Bryant said. “I didn’t think of it as that big of a deal. It was just something that I always wanted to do and I’ve always tried to put my best effort into getting those things done.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bryant’s usual schedule consists of running drills, keeping charts, and being in the headset on game day. But those involved with the football program will tell you her biggest impact is the mark she’s made on her players and the coaches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The key to all this is McKenzie has coaching talent,” Troy football head coach Gerad Parker<\/a> said. “How does that affect culture? I think people see the world through a different lens. Our players treat her the way she should be treated, just as one of us, because she has coaching talent and handles herself in such a way.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“She’s a very kind person,” said Jordan Stringer<\/a>, linebacker. “She makes sure everybody in our room is good. Especially me, because like I said, we got the longest relationship left. Everything she does is out of the kindness of her heart. She never wants nothing back in return. That’s just the type of person she is.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the first female student assistant coach, Bryant takes great pride in setting an example for future generations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It’s like an honor that I carry that I get to lead these people, and I get to show them that like this is possible. Just because you’re a girl doesn’t mean that you can’t be on a sideline or wear a headset or even be involved in football.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bryant plans to graduate in 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TROY, Ala. (TROJANVISION) \u2014 For three years, the Troy football team has had a trailblazer on the sidelines, a woman who has proved football isn’t just a man’s game.<\/p>\n

McKenzie Bryant, a broadcast journalism student minoring in public relations, has always wanted to coach.<\/p>\n

“I really didn’t realize the impact that it would have on…<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":8390,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[2452,2453],"topics":[17],"class_list":["post-8388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-mckenzie-bryant-troy-university","tag-troy-university-football-mckenzie-bryant","topics-troy-campus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8388"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8389,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8388\/revisions\/8389"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8388"},{"taxonomy":"topics","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topics?post=8388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}