Making her mark: Whitman-Hanson grad lands college football coaching job

Whitman-Hanson graduate Meghan Ford has always wanted to be on the gridiron.

Growing up with three siblings, she was closest with her brother, Tommy. The two did everything together. Wherever he was and whatever he was doing, Meghan wanted to be there.

So, after a year of watching her brother play football on the sidelines, she decided to give it a try herself at the age of 8, and ever since, the game has been a passion of hers.

“Watching him play was definitely a driving force in why I wanted to start,” Ford said.

That passion has grown into a career.

After graduating from Coastal Carolina University in 2023, Ford was hired as Massachusetts Maritime Academy’s wide receivers coach earlier this month.

“I knew I wanted to coach,” Ford said. “I knew that was where I wanted to end up.”

Playing days

Ford is one of the latest hires as more women take on coaching and leadership roles in football, both at the professional and collegiate level. Ford attended Whitman-Hanson Regional High School, where she was a four-year wide receiver for the football team and the only girl on the roster.

“It was difficult. It was hard. But it was the best challenge I’ve ever had to face in my entire life,” Ford said.

For 12 years, she grappled each season with deciding if she wanted to continue playing or not. The physicality of the sport already makes things tough, but being the only girl on the team made football even harder.

But each time, she told herself to keep going.

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“I knew I had to keep pushing,” Ford said. “There was just something inside of me that was like ‘Alright, next year. You’re going to do it next year. You’re going to do it the next year,’ and then it just happened to be 12 years.”

Playing youth football, she said that she was bigger than most kids she was playing against, which resulted in her playing on the offensive and defensive line.

But as she entered high school and as the kids around her became taller and stronger, she realized she needed to switch positions. Her coach suggested that she move to wide receiver, and she immediately fell in love with the position. She began to take a real interest in studying the position, with the hopes of one day leading a wide receiver room.

A future in football

After graduating high school, she realized that it was unlikely she could continue playing football at the collegiate level. Her goal at the time was to become a sports agent as she thought that was the closest she could get to being involved with football.

It was evident that Ford was extremely passionate about the game. Her high school coach, former W-H coach Mike Driscoll, saw that in her and suggested getting into coaching.

“Ever since then that’s been the dream,” said Ford.

She graduated from Coastal Carolina with a recreation/sports management degree with a minor in sports coaching. She began working with the school’s football program in 2021 as a recruiting intern. After a year, she slowly started to make her way into coaching, working as a student assistant for the wide receiver's coach, helping coach players like Sam Pinckney, who now plays for the Carolina Panthers.

Last summer, Ford had an opportunity to intern with the Kansas City Chiefs, focusing on the franchise’s day-to-day operations during training camp.

“It was like ‘OK, I have to kind of not be a fan now,’” Ford said. “The shift between being a fan and just watching, to being a worker and actually being a part of the program and the team, it was an interesting switch but a cool one.”

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In February, Ford attended the NFL Women's Forum in Indianapolis during the draft combine, where she heard from a dozen women talk about their time working in the league.

She called the experience “eye opening,” and it served as an inspiration for her to continue pursuing her coaching career.

“I went home feeling completely different than how I flew there,” Ford said.

One of the reasons Ford wanted to coach was because she didn’t see women in football  growing up.

“I grew up not seeing any of that,” Ford said. “For me, the debate of, ‘Should I do another year?’ came down to not seeing anyone do what I was doing.”

What she once thought was impossible, is now a reality.

Now leading a wide receiver room as a woman, Ford says that she enjoys college football and hopes to make a coaching career at that level. However, making it to the NFL wouldn’t be so bad, either.

“I love the collegiate level and I would be super satisfied staying in it. However, the league sounds pretty nice too,” Ford said with a laugh.

This article originally appeared on The Enterprise: Making her mark: Whitman-Hanson grad lands college football coaching job