Autumn Lockwood, it can be said, is never one to metaphorically stand on the sidelines.
However, she was physically standing in such confines, on a pretty big stage Sunday night in New Orleans.
Lockwood, who grew up in Morgantown, is an associate performance coach with the Philadelphia Eagles, the team that soared 40-22 over the Kansas City Chiefs to take the Lombardi Trophy in Super Bowl 56.
“I’m thrilled to no end for Autumn,” Monongalia County Commissioner Tom Bloom said.
“Both for unselfish reasons – and selfish reasons,” he said, chuckling.
First, the unselfish ones: While Lockwood is among a quartet of female coaches in the NFL, she is also the first woman – and the first Black woman, in fact – to ever coach on a team that won the league’s biggest game.
“Think of all those barriers,” Bloom said.
Now, for all those selfish reasons, the commissioner said (with more chuckling).
“She was one of my kids,” said Bloom, who worked more than 30 years as an educator in Monongalia County’s school district.
The bulk of those years were spent as a guidance counselor at University High, where Lockwood starred in the classroom and on the soccer field, on her way to graduating in 2012.
“If you’re in education, you want to see your former students out there doing well in the world,” the former counselor said.
Uh, anything else to add there, Mr. Commissioner?
“OK, I’m from South Philly,” he said. “Eagles all the way. The team is winning, because of what she’s doing as a coach.”
Lockwood got into the business because of what her dad is doing as a coach.
David Lockwood was a starting cornerback for Don Nehlen’s WVU Mountaineers and played for the 1988 championship against Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl.
He became a journeyman coach after that, with sideline tours from Delaware to Kentucky to Wyoming, including climbs up the coaching ladder at WVU in 2000 and again from 2008-11.
The elder Lockwood is currently an assistant coach with the Mountaineers of Appalachian State.
It was during her dad’s time with the Mountaineers of WVU that Lockwood, now 29, was old enough to start realizing just what it was he did for a living.
“I would eat, sleep, breathe football,” she said, during a podcast of the National Strength and Conditioning Association this past August.
“And it’s been so cool growing up as a coach’s kid, being on that side of the thing, as a supporting member of a football team or a university,” she continued.
“I’d watch so many games. I’ve seen so many reps.”
She went to the University of Arizona after high school as a criminal justice major with an original goal of becoming an Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms special agent – but the family business beckoned.
Which suits a certain Monongalia County Commissioner just fine.
“You look at Autumn. She’s from small-town West Virginia. She’s a woman of color. She’s highly capable. She’s succeeded and we get to celebrate, too. I’m proud of her.”
