Jill Costanza’s workday starts at about 6:30 a.m. with strength and conditioning training for Detroit Lions players. Costanza, the director of sports science and assistant strength and conditioning coach for the team, takes players through a training program to help prepare them for games. It includes weightlifting, field conditioning and three-dimensional movement. 

In 2023, Costanza was one of 12 full-time female coaches across the NFL, which has seen an increase of women joining the league in recent years, according to an AP News report. Costanza, who is entering her fifth season with the Lions this year, said she is the first and only female coach on the Lions coaching staff. 

She grew up loving sports. When Costanza entered college, she envisioned becoming a marketing director for the NBA or Nike. Her father, a high school football coach, saw untapped potential in his daughter and encouraged her to consider a career in coaching. Reluctantly, she agreed, and it turned into her passion.

“I listened to him … I’ll get into teaching and coaching until I figure out what I wanted to do,” Costanza said. “Well, I figured out what I wanted to do, coach.”

After college, Costanza taught physical education and coached girls high school basketball. She said she started to notice an increase in ACL injuries in her players, which led her to learn more about strength and conditioning. Later, she received a master’s degree in strength and conditioning and made the move to being a collegiate strength and conditioning coach, eventually ending up in Michigan where she met Lions head coach Dan Campbell.   

“He really took the time … one on one with me, talking to me, getting to know me,” Costanza said. “And I got to meet some of the other coaching staff and the other staff that works here. And it was just an incredible environment.” 

Costanza acknowledged women who have helped pave the way for her: Sandy Abney, her first female mentor at the University of Texas, and Maral Javadifar of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the first female strength and conditioning coach that Costanza saw in the NFL. 

In celebration of Women’s History Month, One Detroit contributor Cecelia Sharpe of 90.9 WRCJ talked with Costanza at the Detroit Lions practice facility in Allen Park about her passion for sports, women who have paved the way in the industry, and the future of women’s sports.