Jill Costanza’s interest in studying ACL injuries and passion for learning new ways to improve performance led the former high school basketball coach and physical education teacher on a journey from college sports to the Army to the Air Force to the NFL.
Now, she’s an asset for a team with Super Bowl aspirations.
Ms. Costanza is in her fourth season with the Detroit Lions, serving as director of sports science and assistant strength and conditioning coach.
“I always had a fascination with the human body and with science and how all the different parts worked together, that holistic view,” Ms. Costanza told the AP.
After earning a bachelor’s degree in sports marketing from the University of Houston, Ms. Costanza began teaching and coaching. When several female athletes on her team suffered anterior cruciate ligament tears, Ms. Costanza started researching why it was a pattern.
“The curiosity led me down a rabbit hole of human performance and strength and conditioning. I had no idea that was a profession,” Ms. Costanza said.
She volunteered her time to serve as the sports performance coach at Houston, working with the volleyball and football teams. Soon she went back to school and obtained a master’s degree in kinesiology and exercise science from Miami.
Ms. Costanza got her first opportunity to be an athletic performance coach at Texas, where she also gained coaching experience in strength and conditioning.
“This is kind of where sports science starts to come into play and my curiosity of utilizing technology and data to assess the effectiveness of our strength and conditioning program, as well as give information to our head coach to make informed decisions regarding setting up practice plans and how to prepare most optimally for games,” Ms. Costanza said.
Ms. Costanza’s path would lead her to the Army’s Wellness Center, where she worked with soldiers and focused even more on utilizing technology. She shifted to the Air Force and its Special Warfare Program.
Ms. Costanza worked closely with Mike Clark in the Air Force when he led the unit’s strength and conditioning program. Mr. Clark previously was the head strength and conditioning coordinator for Texas A&M when Lions coach Dan Campbell played at the school. When Detroit hired Mr. Campbell, he called Mr. Clark to join him as the team’s director of sports performance. Mr. Clark brought Ms. Costanza with him.
Ms. Costanza’s work ethic and determination have made her a key part of Detroit’s coaching staff.
“She’s got about a thousand hats,” Mr. Campbell said. “Not only does she work in sports science, she’s the one who’s giving us all the data post-practice, what we can handle, what we can’t, where we’re at. But also, she works in the weight room. She’s down there when we’re doing cleans, we’re doing warm up, we’re doing dynamics, we’re doing squats, she’s coaching. Those are just a couple of things that she helps us with. She’s a versatile coach. When you’re able to be a legit strength coach but also work in the sports science department for us, that was one of Mike Clark’s visions, we’re fortunate to have her. Her versatility was going to be big for us. She’s an asset.”
Lions players appreciate Ms. Costanza’s dedication to her craft.
“She’s very knowledgeable,” Lions defensive tackle Alim McNeill said. “She’s super, duper smart. She knows a lot about the training aspect of things, whether it’s stretching, whether it’s trying to get this hip to move this way. She brings a lot to the table and she has helped us out tremendously.”
