Michigan's Mimi Bolden-Morris on being first female Power Five GA: 'I’m really embracing the pressure'

Milan (Mimi) Bolden-Morris became the first female graduate assistant coach at a Big Ten school and at any Power Five FBS program when Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh announced the groundbreaking hire on March 15.

Bolden-Morris recently finished her career on the hardwood with Georgetown women’s basketball as the team’s leading scorer in 2021-22 with 12.6 points per contest, starting in all 29 games and averaging 35 minutes each night. The Belle Glade, Florida native is expected to earn her master’s degree in sports management this May and join the Wolverines on June 1 to begin working with the quarterbacks.

“We had some great conversations and I came away extremely impressed with her desire and ideas for coaching, and for making us better as a team,” Harbaugh said. “Mimi is a very bright, intelligent and competitive young woman who will be a great addition to our program and offensive coaching staff. We look forward to having Mimi transition into this role working with our quarterbacks. We can’t wait to see the new perspective she brings to our team.”

In an interview with Big Ten Today, coaching’s newest prospect said she grew up ‘attached to the hip’ with her father when he coached youth football. Merely a water girl at the time, Bolden-Morris quickly became infatuated with the sport and sought out any opportunity to be involved with a pigskin, oftentimes straying from her mother’s expectations.

“I wanted to play so badly,” Bolden-Morris said. “But my mom’s artsy, so she was the cheerleader, the dancer, and that’s what she wanted me to be. So, she never allowed me to play, but I was able to play flag because there was a flag football league in my town. I played that until I was in high school, and so I was just constantly consumed in it. Where my brother and I are from, football is literally religion. It’s all there is. It’s a small little farm town with corn fields and sugarcane fields everywhere. Football’s really all we grew up around.”

Bolden-Morris admits she didn’t have the slightest idea how historic this hire was when she first got the news. Of course, she’s aware that very few women make it into this space, and that she’d inevitably have to work harder than men in the same positions, but now her journey is fueled by a purpose far beyond just herself.

NFL assistant coaches Jennifer King (Commanders), Sophia Lewin (Bills) and Lori Locust (Buccaneers) have each taken Bolden-Morris under their wing to highlight the roadblocks that await, and it’s evident she accepts the expectation to continue blazing this trail in a similar yet innovative fashion.

“I know that what I do and how well I perform is only going to allow those doors to be opened,” the 22-year-old acknowledged. “I’m so excited and so grateful that I’m the one who could be making this happen for other women, especially women of color, and in light of everything going on, I think it just makes it that much greater for me. I’m really embracing the pressure that comes with it, and it’s exciting to me to know I’m the first, but I can open the door for hundreds of women to come down the road.”

Maybe the most important factor for Bolden-Morris, though, is she now undeniably has the upper hand in her sibling rivalry.

Not many brothers have to call their sister “coach,” and regardless of being on opposite sides of the ball, that’s still the predicament senior Michigan defensive end Mike Morris is stuck with this season. Don’t be surprised to see the clipboard leveraged in order to protect her prized pupils.

“I told him as long as he doesn’t touch my quarterbacks, we’re fine,” Bolden-Morris joked. “We won’t have a problem. I’m really excited, and I’ve watched my brother play so I think seeing him this close up, watching him develop, will be the coolest part of it all. I’m just grateful that I’m gonna be a part of it, but yeah, I do give him crap about how he actually has to listen to me now.”