The Baltimore Ravens are welcoming three women to their camp this summer to help assist coaches and front office members, the team announced this week.
Lori Locust will be working with the defensive coaches starting in training camp and running through the first three preseason games. Elena Grigelevich is slated to be in the office with the analytics team throughout training camp. Erica Vinson-Ondecko will assist Ravens specialists coach Randy Brown on the first day of mandatory minicamp this week.
"I've been doing this so long that up here, in this area, people don't look at me as a woman coach," Locust said via the official team site. "In a backwards way, I find that to be the highest compliment. I want to be seen as a coach first, then a woman. I'm a coach that happens to be a woman."
All three women have extensive backgrounds in football. Locust has been coaching for 13 years, Grigelevich founded Bryant Footballs Think Tank, which uses data to study team tendencies, and Vinson-Ondecko is entering her sixth season as a high school coach after playing in high school and college.
