Katie Sowers
Katie Sowers (born August 7, 1986) is an American football coach who made history as the first openly gay and first female coach in the Super Bowl. She was an offensive assistant for the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LIV.
Her coaching career began with the Atlanta Falcons in 2016 as a coaching intern. She then joined the 49ers in 2017, first as a Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellow, then as a seasonal offensive assistant, a role she held through 2020. In 2021 she joined the Kansas City Chiefs. As of October 2021, she works at Ottawa University as the director of athletic strategic initiatives and coaches the university’s women’s flag football team.
Early life and education: Sowers was born in Hesston, Kansas, and grew up in a Mennonite community. She had a lazy eye fixed during childhood and started playing football at age eight. She played multiple sports in high school and college, including basketball, soccer, and javelin. She studied at Hesston College, Goshen College (where she competed in javelin and also played basketball and soccer), and the University of Central Missouri (kinesiology). She earned a Master of Science in 2013.
Football career before the NFL: Sowers played in the Women's Football Alliance (WFA) for teams such as the West Michigan Mayhem and the Kansas City Titans. She was part of the U.S. women’s national team that won the 2013 IFAF Women’s World Championship and retired from the WFA in 2016 due to a hip injury.
Personal notes: Sowers publicly came out as a lesbian before the 2017 NFL season. In 2009 she was rejected for a volunteer coaching position at Goshen College because of her sexual orientation, an action for which the college apologized in 2020. Her twin sister, Liz, is also involved in coaching and works with Sowers as the head coach of Ottawa University’s women’s flag football team.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 04:27 (CET).