Maya Ana Callender becomes first full-time female scout in New England Patriots history

Maya Ana Callender is breaking down barriers after being hired as a scout for the New England Patriots on Sunday. According to ESPN, Callender is the first woman hired as a full-time scout in the Patriots’ 64-year history.

A 2016 graduate of Utica College (NY), Callender most recently served as the director of football operations at Princeton. Part of her role with the team was as a liaison between the Tigers and NFL scouts. She also helped with recruiting, player engagement, alumni relations and a variety of other things.

“She was able to carve out time almost every day to practice the craft of evaluating,” Princeton coach Bob Surace told ESPN. “She would look at NFL games, evaluate players and learn scout-speak — the language of talking about somebody’s reach, length, production, how they use their hands. …She would have a pad out at our practices, taking notes.

“She became our pro/NFL liaison, so every time a scout came in — which was probably 50 times last year, every team came in at least once — she set them up. She talked about the players, their injury histories, how she had evaluated their performances. Then, by the time the scouts got to me, they didn’t have a lot of questions. I was kind of irrelevant on that, which was a new thing for me. She was terrific.”

This won’t be the first NFL experience for Callender, as she previously had a fellowship with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2021 and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2022. She was also a head manager for the football team at Utica College in all four years that she attended there.

Callender will now get the opportunity to learn from arguably one of the best coaches in NFL history in Patriots head man Bill Belichick. The coach is set to enter his 24th season with the team and has led them to six Super Bowls.

Patriots’ hire of Callender part of growing trend of woman working for NFL teams

According to ESPN, there were 33 full-time female scouts employed by NFL teams in 2022. But that’s not the only area were women are starting to break through in the league.

USA Today reported that 41.3% of league office employees in 2022 were women, which is an all-time high. Overall, 319 females had NFL jobs this past year, including six women who were full-time coaches.

Those numbers are certainly something to cheer about, and it looks like the opportunities for women in sports will only continue to grow moving forward.

“It’s great to see more women in these roles,” LA Chargers direction of football administrations Katie Sylvan said. “There have been women in these roles before me and there will definitely be women in these roles after me. I think that’s really the most important thing is that people understand that these opportunities exist and are out there if it’s something they’re interested in doing and pursuing.”