Commanders announce six Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellows originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
The Commanders announced on Monday the six fellows that have been selected to help out on Washington’s staff throughout the offseason as part of the Bill Walsh NFL Diversity Coaching Fellowship.
The six fellows are as follows: Isabel Diaz, Alonso Escalante, LaQuaid Manago, Mohamed Kourouma, Steve Calhoun and Corey Woods.
Four of the fellows — Calhoun (quarterbacks), Manago (running backs), Kourouma (offensive line) and Woods (tight ends) — will assist on the offensive side of the ball. The other two, Diaz and Escalante, will work with the Commanders’ secondary.
The Bill Walsh NFL Diversity Coaching Fellowship was established in 1987 with the goal to get more talented minority coaches exposure at the NFL level. The program is named after the late Bill Walsh, who started the idea by inviting multiple minority coaches to help at San Francisco 49ers’ training camp that summer.
In 2021, over 120 coaches participated in the Bill Walsh Fellowship program, according to the NFL. Commanders head coach Ron Rivera, a minority coach himself, has long been a supporter of the fellowship program and was one of the speakers at the 2021 virtual event.
“These fellowships both give deserving men and women the opportunity to get their foot in the door and pursue a career that they are passionate about,” Rivera said in November. “As someone who took part in an NFL coaching internship to start my career, I appreciate that by getting that opportunity, I earned everything I’ve achieved from that point on.”
