'You guys are rocking the game': Jen Welter impressed with Regina flag football

The first-ever female coach in the NFL, Jen Welter, is visiting Regina where she says the game of football has enjoyed ahuge expansion.

"You guys are rocking the game of football here in Regina," Welter said prior to a engagement Friday night for Girls in the Game Canada. Welter will also be participating in coaching clinics throughout the weekend.

When you work hard and follow your dreams, you can do things in this world that nobody thought possible.- Jen Welter

Welter is promoting an NFL initiative to encourage youngsters to be active, called the Play 60 program.

She said the people behind the program, including herself, want to ensure that boys and girls would enjoy participating. She saidRegina which has been seeing growth in youngsters playing flag football was a good fit for Play 60.

The Regina Youth Flag Football League has gained more than 1,000 players over the last three years and now has around 2,300 boys and girls playing the game. Much of the increase comes from the participation of girls in the game.

"You guys are off the charts here in Regina," Welter noted. "You have over 350 girls participating in flag football and 19 all-girls teams."

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The Arizona Cardinals hired Welter to coach inside linebackers through its 2015 training camp and pre-season.

She played running back and special teams in 2014 for the Texas Revolution of the Indoor Football League, becoming the first woman to hold a non-kicking position for a men's professional sports league.

Welter said her own interest in football goes back to her earliest years.

"I grew up loving the game," she said. Even though the sport was not big in her family, the community where she lived was very attached to the game.

"Everything just shut down on a Friday night," she said, recalling how the town would lavish attention on the local football team.

"I always wanted to be able to playwhen I was younger, but I didn't have the opportunity until after college," she said.

Coaching in the NFL

Becoming the first female coach in the NFL, Welter said, was a "surreal" experience.

"Even though I was one of the best women players in the game, it never even crossed my mind that the NFL would be something that was possible for me," she said.

She said players and others in the sport have been very welcoming of her, although it has taken some people time to reach that.

"I think it takes a different amount of time, for everyone," she said. "Certain guys welcomed me in, right from the jump."

Welter said once players noticed that she actually knew what she was doingon the field, they were very encouraging. She added that her own game film, from her playing days, also solidified her credibility with players.

"Some guys, it took longer. But no one was outright, 'She doesn't belong here,' " she said.

Welter hoped that the young players and coaches she meets in Regina will take, from her own experience, the message that they should pursue their interests with vigour.

"Truly anything is possible," she said. "When you work hard and follow your dreams, you can do things in this world that nobody thought possible."

The Play 60 program also provides local football organizations with support, including resources and expertise, to grow the sport of football particularly among females.

Welter will be working with some the league's eight and nine year olds during a clinic on Saturday.