Alex Honeywood: Working as a female coach on a football team

Alex Honeywood did it all when it came to sports growing up, but an injury in high school helped her see the side of sports away from the playing surface. She is part of the Texas A&M University-Commerce football coaching staff through hard work and perseverance as the Lions transition into Division I. 

Growing up in Paris, Honeywood played softball, soccer, volleyball, basketball, track & field, and gymnastics. Attending North Lamar High School, she considered playing basketball in college, but while on the track her junior year, an injury ended that opportunity.

“I tore my rotator cuff during track, and the amount of physical therapy I had to do and working with my high school athletic trainer, it interested me and made me want to be an athletic trainer,” says Honeywood. 

Ever since that moment, Honeywood began working towards becoming an athletic trainer. After serving as a student athletic trainer in high school, she worked in the athletic training room at A&M-Commerce, eventually working with the Lion Football program. 

She says, “I always wanted to be an athletic trainer growing up. My goal at the end of the day is still to be an athletic trainer, but decided to take a step back for a little bit.” 

Honeywood started volunteering with the Lion Football program, helping the coaching staff set up for practice and coordinating film for both games and practices. “I started working with the football program two years ago, and it went from there. I started with doing little tasks, but over time I got more responsibilities.” 

Earlier this spring, Lion football coach David Bailiff offered Honeywood a role on the coaching staff as the special teams graduate assistant. “Coach Bailiff saw my work with athletic training at first and always joked with me that he would hire me one day, and he offered the role to me.” 

Though her goal has always been to work as an athletic trainer, Honeywood decided to give it a shot working on the operations side of sports and has had a great experience doing so thus far. 

“The adage of, ‘You work on your resumé every day,’ is true when it comes to Alex Honeywood. She earned this position with her ethic and her sense of urgency,” says Bailiff.  

Her everyday responsibilities for the program are set up for practice and overseeing the student filmers and student assistants, who help the coaches with the props during practices. In addition, she attends special teams meetings every day. 

She is also responsible for ensuring that all practices are filmed correctly and uploaded for coaches to review. Honeywood is not the only new person on the staff this year, which has made her transition easier. 

“It is stressful at times, but that comes with every job. I love the coaching staff and the team. They make it better,” says Honeywood. “A lot of the coaching staff is new this year, so we are growing together.” 

Honeywood hopes to use this opportunity to be a Director of Football Operations one day. However, she would still like to spend some time in the classroom and fulfill one of her passions, getting her certification in athletic training. 

Growing up around football, despite her mother not being fond of the sport, Honeywood says that working with a great football program was too good to pass up. 

She concludes, “I have been around sports my whole life, so when I saw the opportunity to work more with sports teams here at A&M-Commerce, I could not pass it up.”

Smith, Ibrahim, and Svaerd earn LSC Athlete of the Week honors.

RICHARDSON – Three members of the Texas A&M University-Commerce track and field teams earned Lone Star Conference Athletes of the Week recognition from the conference office on Wednesday afternoon. They selected J.T. Smith for the Men’s Track category, Moaz Ibrahim for the Men’s Field category, and Minna Svaerd earned the honor for Women’s Track. 

Smith (Klein Oak) was part of the school record-setting 4×100 meter relay team of Cameron Macon (Dallas–Carter), Andre Norman (Celina), Delan Edwin (Castries, Saint Lucia), and Smith, racing to a time of 39.40 seconds, which is fastest in the country. He also timed 10.28 seconds in the 100-meter dash, the second-fastest in the country. 

Ibrahim (Cairo, Egypt) threw 184 feet 10 inches (56.33m) in the discus to win the event at Angelo State last week. His mark is the best in the country in just his second competition as a Lion.  

Svaerd (Karlstad, Sweden) broke her school record in the 400 hurdles with 57.91 seconds, also winning the event at Angelo State. She also competed in the pole vault, clearing 11 feet 10 inches (3.61m), third in the conference. 

The trio joins Elmar Schutte as LSC Athletes of the Week during the outdoor season. This year, the Lions have had ten honorees, six during the indoor season and four in the outdoor season. It is the first career LSC Athlete of the Week honors for Smith and Ibrahim, while it is the first for Svaerd since March 26, 2021. 

The Lions host the East Texas Invitational at Memorial Stadium on Saturday. Field events begin at 9:00 am, and track finals begin at 4:45 pm.