St. Thomas assistant Anna Caruso: Females in football exploding

FARGO — When North Dakota State hosts the University of St. Thomas on Saturday afternoon, the braintrusts on the Tommie sideline will be tasked with facing the No. 1-ranked team in Division I Football Championship Subdivision. That includes the assistant coach for in-game strategy and data research.

Anna Caruso will be just as involved with the St. Thomas coaching staff as anybody, a female in a male-dominated profession. Her father, Glenn Caruso, is the head coach in his 17th year with the program and when it comes to critical decisions, there is no hesitation in turning to Anna, who helps dissecting tendencies of opponents.

“What’s working, what’s not working,” she said, “and helping give the coaches input for making decisions as it gets later in drives.”

Football is attracting more females to the business, like referees in the NFL and Division I college football. Sarah Evans is the senior manager of coaching operations with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Mickey Grace is the director of player development and pass rush specialist for the University of Connecticut football program.

“Females in football that I have witnessed over the last four years have exploded,” Anna Caruso said.

She’s twice been to the American Football Coaches Association annual convention. She’s been involved with the group All Things Forward consisting of women in all facets and levels of football.

“It’s made a world that may seem very big and isolating feel a little bit smaller and more connected,” Anna said. “I’ve been surprised by the fact there’s been a lot of men who have an interest to grow the game for women, support women and give tools and resources to help.”

She’s a UST assistant coach while having one season to go with the Tommie softball program. But there is no questioning a potential path to making a living with football. She’s had stints working with the Minnesota Vikings in their football operations the last couple of years.

Asked if she would consider at some point to be a position group coach, she said her mindset is to take the next step forward.

“Yeah I would love to stick with it,” Anna said. “I love teams and cultures and leadership and when it’s a passion of your family, football just feels like home to me.”

St. Thomas head coach Glenn Caruso, right, looks on as assistant coach and daughter Anna Caruso handles analytics and data.

St. Thomas Athletics photo

Football has been home her entire life, as a kid not only being around practice but getting involved in the specifics of the game. The oldest of three with two younger brothers, it was Anna who begged her mother, Rachael, to take the kids to practice.

“At one point, it was me wanting to go and my brothers were like, do we have to go?” Anna said. “I just loved hanging out and I think it was something that dad was passionate about so it was something I was passionate about. Just wanted to be involved in any way I could.”

When she was a teenager, she took a city bus from school to St. Thomas practices. And when she committed to the St. Thomas softball program out of Cretin-Derham High School in St. Paul, Glenn had a job for her.

She helps with decisions, mainly with the offense. Glenn gave one example when the Tommies were playing Michigan Tech a few years ago. The Huskies didn’t have much interest in pressuring the UST quarterback and when the Tommies had a fourth-and-8 on the doorstep of the end zone, Anna had an idea to get more aggression out of the Tech defensive line.

“She mentioned, send the field goal PTA team out and we ran a fake field goal for a 12-yard touchdown,” Glenn said. “They were going to come after the kick. It blew the game wide open because they were going to sit back there on defense.”

On Saturday, it will have been 23 years since there were that many Carusos in the Fargodome. Glenn was a Bison assistant from 1997-2002, with his father Frank Caruso a usual visitor to games. One of Glenn’s prized photos is a photo of him, his dad and a 9-month-old Anna, taken just before Frank died.

A backup linebacker for the Tommies is sophomore Cade Caruso.

“Our kids were never the spoiled coach’s kids, they came to practice and they worked,” Glenn said. “Anna being on the sideline is kind of the physical representation of a dream that we’ve had for a long time.”

Jeff Kolpack, the son of a reporter and an English teacher, and the brother of a reporter, worked at the Jamestown Sun, Bismarck Tribune and since 1990 The Forum, where he’s covered North Dakota State athletics since 1995. He has covered all 10 of NDSU’s Division I FCS national football titles and has written four books: “Horns Up,” “North Dakota Tough,” “Covid Kids” and “They Caught Them Sleeping: How Dot Reinvented the Pretzel.” He is also the radio host of “The Golf Show with Jeff Kolpack” April through August.