March is Women’s History Month, an especially poignant time to celebrate exciting and ground-breaking accomplishments of women.

USA Football recognizes women growing America’s Game in seismic and significant ways. Few have done more for the sport than Sam Rapoport and Kandice Pritchett Mitchell.

Rapoport and Pritchett Mitchell grew up wanting to play and work in football. The only problem was there were few opportunities for women to do either in the sport they loved. Not only did both represent their respective countries at the highest level of play, but they also have excelled in football off the field.

Rapoport grew up in Canada and developed a love for the sport, eventually playing for the Canadian National Team. She earned an internship with the NFL in 2003.

“At that time, women had just began playing tackle football in an organized fashion and there were zero women in coaching or scouting roles in the NFL,” Rapoport said. “We were at a point in time where girls didn’t grow up believing that working in football was a pathway for them, so they chose other routes. That is changing.”

Pritchett Mitchell won a gold medal with the U.S. Women’s National Team in 2017 and is a member of USA Football’s board of directors. She also serves as the assistant athletic director of Atlanta Public Schools, where she has seen firsthand the interest girls have in playing the sport.

“Thanks to USA Football, Atlanta Public Schools will be launching girls middle school flag football this spring,” Pritchett Mitchell said. “I haven’t witnessed this type of excitement about a sport since I started this position five years ago. These girls will be ahead of the game as the state of Georgia rolls out girls’ high school flag football as a sanctioned sport. We will have close to 150 teams battling for the inaugural state championship trophy in the fall of 2020.”

Rapoport now works as a senior director of diversity and inclusion for the NFL, where she works to include all women.

“The area in which I am most passionate is ensuring women of color are being considered at the same rate as white women,” Rapoport said. “In all sports, we are seeing the first of many women in the door are white women. We haven’t seen true progress until all women are getting opportunities and that is a critical focal point for the programs we run.”

Rapoport created the NFL Women’s Careers in Football Forum, one of several initiatives to increase women’s involvement in the sport. A former director at USA Football, she credits the work of USA Football and the NFL for providing girls greater opportunities.

“Programs run by USA Football and the NFL aimed at including and enfranchising women into the sport have expedited progress significantly,” Rapoport said. “From a grassroots standpoint, young girls in this country are now growing up with female role models in football and the media around the NFL and USA Football’s efforts in this space will serve to provide much needed representation.”

Pritchett Mitchell also is committed to advance the sport for women and girls. One way she has done this is by serving as the commissioner of the Women’s National Football Conference (WNFC), a women’s tackle league with 20 teams across the country. The WNFC has experienced challenges any new league could expect but has thrived by acquiring sponsorships from global brands.

“The WNFC has elevated the game of women’s football in a way that we’ve never seen before,” Pritchett Mitchell said. “Funding has been the biggest challenge in women’s football. Although it’s still a huge reality that we deal with, the blow has been lessened and we can focus on showcasing a premier product on and off the field. Girls all over the world are getting a glimpse at women living out their dreams and paving a way for generations to come.”