Jennifer King Makes Appearance at Ike
Jennifer King visited Eisenhower on February 5th in the auditorium, and let me tell you, it was so worth it. King, who is from North Carolina, was the assistant wide receiver coach for the Arizona Hotshots in the Alliance of American Football and at Dartmouth College, where she worked with wide receivers and assisted with offensive quality control for the 2019 Ivy League champions. In 2020, she became a full-season intern offensive assistant with the Washington Commanders.
Her duties included working with the running backs and assisting with offensive quality control. Following the 2020 season, King was promoted to assistant coordinator running back coach, making her the FIRST black female assistant coach in NFL history. During the 2025 off-season, she accepted an offensive analyst position at North Carolina Central University, where she is currently working with wide receivers. She was named an All-American 7 times and even won 2 National titles.
She was very open about her experience getting to where she is today. She coached college basketball, but since she wasn't getting paid, she worked random jobs and ultimately knew she wanted to work in sports. She worked RIGHT NEXT to the Carolina Panthers training facility, and she explained: “ I can hear them practice. Obviously, during that time, I was playing football, and I loved it, but I never saw anyone who looked like me in Football. So why did I think I could do it?” She would hide behind cars to watch them, and one day the coach saw her. That's when she shot her shot and told him she would love an opportunity to be a part of his staff. She was later invited to a 2-day camp, and those 2 days became 5 months.
When questions arrived, I asked, “ What does it mean to you to represent women in the NFL?” King state,d “I think it's something I've grown up with, as I said, I didn't get into this to be first. I got in because I love coaching and I love football. But then I realized that I'm literally what I didn't have. I didn't have anybody I could look at, see, and touch that looked like me coaching in the NFL. So I'm that person now. So I think it's important for me to do a really great job everywhere that I work, because we know it's not always a level playing field. I don't want to leave a job, and they're like oh we are not hiring no more women. I don't want that. Even though men mess up all the time, they still hire them. So I feel that it's not pressure, it's just, I want to be great. I always want to be great, so there is nothing new. I want to excel in whatever I'm doing.”
It was truly an amazing experience, and gave amazing advice to people who want to work in sports. I later told her that it inspired me because I hope to be a Sports Reporter, and she loved it and told me to chase that dream.
