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Janice Pettyjohn is a game-changer for more reasons than one. The soon-to-be 23-year-old has made history by becoming the first woman hired as a full-time employee for Howard University’s football department.
A New Jersey native, Pettyjohn graduated from Howard in 2021 from the university’s Sports Medicine Residency program with a minor in sociology.
Her responsibilities include being the assistant director of football operations and the director of on-campus recruiting, according to the Burlington County Times. Notably, the latter role was created specifically for Pettyjohn to fulfill.
Her employment at the university not only serves as a feat for other women who hope to break into the coaching and recruiting side of football, a male-dominated sport. It also showcases that it’s possible to achieve major goals even at a young age.
“I’m super grateful for this position,” Pettyjohn told the Burlington County Times. “Being 22 years old and getting a full-time position at Howard fresh out of college — its rare. Coach [Larry Scott] really saw the potential in me.”
“‘I’m 22, about to be 23, doing what some 30 year old’s are just getting started doing,” she said. “You’re finding coaches on my staff who have coached in the NFL, who have played in the NFL. Coaches, who I’m not going to necessarily say ages, but they’re over the age of 40 and 50, who have been in this game for quite some time. So it was definitely a matter of building trust.”
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Although she was more interested in the arts than in sports growing up, and her original plan after completing her residency program was to go to medical school, Pettyjohn’s love for the operations behind sports drew her in during serval points in her life.
Those seasons throughout her journey ultimately served as the experience she needed for the roles she now holds at Howard.
Pettyjohn managed the basketball team in seventh and eighth grade to keep herself busy after school which she said:
“ended up just becoming something that I loved without realizing that I love [it] because it just became second nature.”
Her hard work and ambition in middle school was integral to her work managing the Rancocas Valley Regional High School football team.
When she reached Howard, one of the country’s most highly regarded historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), former head coach Mike London offered Pettyjohn an undergraduate role as a graphic designer and equipment manager.
“And then from there, my name just kind of started floating around. And next thing I know, I’m working with operations, I’m working with the color commentating people on the radio, I’m working with the (sports information) department,” the 22-year-old explained. “I was always the person kind of with that mentality like that if it has to get done, I’m going to be the one that gets it done.”
Congrats to Pettyjohn and all her success!
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