CBS sports feature on BGM graduate earns Gracie Award

​     Edie Worthington, a 2017 BGM graduate, watches a play unfold from the sidelines during an Air Force Falcons football game. Edie has been involved with the Air Force football team since 2018 and worked as a graduate assistant during the 2022 season. Edie is the first female graduate assistant coach in Air Force and Mountain West Conference history. A CBS sports feature on Edie that aired on Oct. 1, 2022 won a Gracie Award.

​By J.O. Parker
 
    Edie Worthington was in her first year as a graduate assistant coach with the Air Force Falcons football program when she learned that CBS Sports wanted to tell her story.
    CBS was interested in Edie, a 2017 BGM graduate, after learning that she was the first female graduate assistant in Air Force Academy history and in the Mountain West Conference to coach college football. In fact, she’s the first female at any military academy to coach football.
    Not sure about it all, Edie called her mom, Glynis, in Cedar Falls and formerly of Brooklyn, to get her thoughts.
    “My mom told me that this isn’t about me, it’s about the little girls who don’t know what I am doing is possible.”
     The sports feature titled “We Need to Talk (Edie Worthington – CBS Sports) aired on Oct. 1 during the Navy vs. Air Force game.
     It was recently announced that the sports feature has received a Gracie Award, which will be presented to the producers of the film on May 23 at the 48th Gracie Gala at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif.
Named after the late Gracie Allen, the Gracie Awards acknowledge outstanding team leadership and individual achievement. The Gracies focus on women who are making positive change and who further the discussion of what a fulfilling career in media looks like.
     Edie got involved with the Falcon football team following basic training her freshman year at the academy.
    “During basic training, I met some other cadets who had been recruited to play football and they became my friends,” Edie said. “I had been talking with them and heard about an opportunity to work with the football team.”
    Following an interview, Edie landed a position with the Falcon football team equipment staff in August 2018. She stayed with the football program and by her sophomore year, she was working with the running backs and quarterbacks.
   “That allowed me to learn the game even more,” she said. “I then moved into a dual role working with the equipment staff and also with the offensive coordinator, Mike Thiessen.”  
   Her junior year, Edie was promoted to the quarterback play signaler.
  “With every motion I’m doing, I’m telling the quarterback what play to run,” she said of being on the sidelines on game day.
   She participated in all home games and traveled to the away games as well as attended practice each day.
    “I went from a person who moved equipment around and helped with drills, to somebody who helped with film and with offensive game play calling,” she said. “I actually became an important part of the team.”
     By her senior year, Edie was working as a volunteer manager and offensive line signaler for the Falcons.
   Edie graduated in May 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering with an emphasis on concrete construction. Her future goals are to attend flight school for pilot training with the hope of flying a CV-22 Osprey, an American multi-mission, tiltrotor military aircraft with both vertical and short takeoff and landing capabilities. She is currently on a long waiting list.
   During the 2021 football season, Edie expressed an interest in being a paid graduate assistant for the Falcons. She first spoke with offensive coordinator Mike Thiessen. In the spring of 2022, Edie reached out to    Falcons head coach Troy Calhoun with a request to be considered for the GA position.
    “The graduate assistant position is a highly sought after and competitive position,” said Edie. 
    She landed the job, saying that the Lord provided and opened the door for her.
    Edie is currently working on her master’s degree in Science and Engineering Management.
    As a graduate assistant, Edie worked with the tailbacks and slot receivers for the Falcons, who finished 10-3 in 2022 and won their bowl game against Baylor, 30-15.
    Edie said Air Force is one of only seven teams in all of college football to have 10 plus wins in the last three full season, not including the COVID-19 year.
    As for the Gracie Awards, Edie said she has no plans to attend the gala. 
   “I didn’t do any of this for the fanfare,” she said. “I wanted to do the job because I love football. I love what it stands for and what it builds in the lives of young men and how it rallies communities together. Football teaches young people how to push through adversity and get up when they have been knocked down.”
   And as a special treat for her success on the sidelines, the NFL selected Edie to attend the NFL Women’s Forum on Feb. 28 – March 1 in Indianapolis during the combine.
   “They selected me because of what I have done in college football and the possibility of me entering in the NFL,” said Edie. “I got to meet the commissioner of the NFL and some of the coaches and owners. It was a surreal experience.”
    In mid-April, she was awarded a summer internship with the Buffalo Bills NFL team. This fall, unless flight school calls, Edie will be back on the Falcon sidelines as a play caller and an important part of the team. Practice will start the second week of August.
    “I don’t think you’re born with a passion – you build it,” said Edie. “And you find it through learning more and more about something. And that was football for me.”