Lori Locust (born 1964) is an

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

coach who is a defensive quality control coach for the

Tennessee Titans The Tennessee Titans are a professional American football team based in Nashville, Tennessee. The Titans compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC South, South division. They play the ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(NFL).

Early years

Locust was born in 1964 in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

. She grew up in

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Harrisburg ( ; ) is the capital city of the U.S. commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the seat of Dauphin County. With a population of 50,099 as of 2020, Harrisburg is the ninth-most populous city in Pennsylvania. It is the larger of the two pr ...

. She graduated from

Susquehanna Township High School Susquehanna Township High School (STHS) is a mid-sized, public high school located in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania serving students from Susquehanna Township. The school provides grades 9 through 12. In the 2021–22 school year, the school had 758 ...

in 1982, and attended

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist ministe ...

for two years before leaving to tend to her ill father.

Playing career

Locust joined a semi-professional women's football team in 2004 as a

defensive lineman In gridiron football, a lineman is a player who specializes in play at the line of scrimmage. The linemen of the team currently in possession of the ball are the offensive line (OL), while linemen on the opposing team are the defensive line (D ...

. In her fourth season for the Central PA Vipers, she was named team captain and MVP, but retired after the next season due to a knee injury.

Coaching career

Locust coached the Vipers after retiring from her playing career with the team. She was also hired as an assistant coach at Susquehanna Township High School in 2009, and coached there until 2018. A men's semi-professional football team, the Central Penn Piranha, hired her as an assistant coach in 2013. She coached with the Central Penn Capitals of

American Indoor Football American Indoor Football (AIF) is a professional Indoor American football, indoor football league, one of the several regional professional indoor football leagues in North America. The AIFL began as a regional league with six franchises on the ...

in 2016. She became the defensive line and linebackers coach and co-special teams coordinator for the Lehigh Valley Steelhawks of the

National Arena League The National Arena League (NAL) is a professional indoor football league that began play in 2017. As of the end of the 2024 season, the league consisted of five teams. A team's typical payroll budget is $600,000 per season, but as of the 2022 ...

in 2017. In 2018, she was a defensive line coaching intern for the

Baltimore Ravens The Baltimore Ravens are a professional American football team based in Baltimore. The Ravens compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. The team plays its home g ...

during their training camp. The Birmingham Iron of the

Alliance of American Football The Alliance of American Football (AAF) was a professional American football minor league. The AAF consisted of eight centrally owned and operated teams in the southern and western United States, seven of which were located in metropolitan area ...

hired her as their assistant defensive line coach for the

2019 season Nineteen or 19 may refer to: * 19 (number) * One of the years 19 BC, AD 19, 1919, 2019 Films * ''19'' (film), a 2001 Japanese film * ''Nineteen'' (1987 film), a 1987 science fiction film * '' 19-Nineteen'', a 2009 South Korean film * '' Dici ...

before the league folded. Locust was hired by the

Tampa Bay Buccaneers The Tampa Bay Buccaneers (colloquially known as the Bucs) are a professional American football team based in Tampa, Florida. The Buccaneers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC S ...

as their assistant

defensive line coach In American football, a position coach is a team official in charge of coaching a specific position group. Position coaches have more specialized duties than the head coach, associate and assistant coach, and the Offensive coordinator, offensive a ...

in March 2019 under

head coach A head coach, senior coach, or manager is a professional responsible for training and developing athletes within a sports team. This role often has a higher public profile and salary than other coaching positions. In some sports, such as associat ...

Bruce Arians Bruce Charles Arians (born October 3, 1952) is an American football executive and former coach in the National Football League (NFL). Since 2022, he has been a senior football consultant for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Arians was previously the h ...

. She became the first female position coach in the NFL and third female full-time assistant coach in NFL history, after Kathryn Smith and

Katie Sowers Katie Sowers (born August 7, 1986) is an American football coach, formerly in the National Football League (NFL). She was the first openly gay and first female coach in Super Bowl history. Sowers began her American football career playing in the ...

. Locust and assistant

strength and conditioning coach A strength and conditioning coach (also known as an S&C coach) is a physical performance professional who uses exercise prescription to improve the performance of competitive Athlete, athletes or Sports club, athletic teams. This is achieved throug ...

Maral Javadifar became the first female coaches to win a

Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual History of the NFL championship, league championship game of the National Football League (NFL) of the United States. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966 NFL season, 1966 (with the excep ...

when the Buccaneers defeated the

Kansas City Chiefs The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) West division. Established in 1959 ...

Super Bowl LV Super Bowl LV was an American football game played to determine the champion of the National Football League (NFL) for the 2020 season. The National Football Conference (NFC) champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers defeated the American Football Conferen ...

on February 7, 2021. On February 5, 2023, the

hired Locust as a defensive assistant. The hiring made Locust Tennessee's first full-time female coach in franchise history.

Personal

Locust married, and later divorced, Andrew Locust, who played

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

for

Temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temples" in Engli ...

, and they had two children together.

References

External links