VILLA PARK, IL − Rachel Karos might be one of the busiest women in America.
Yet despite having more reasons to be tired than one can count, it doesn't stop the Willowbrook (IL) flag football coach from getting hands on at the Warriors' practices.
"We're on scout team when we practice," Karos said, referring to her and her assistant coaches.
Karos — along with her assistant coaches Nicole Matheson and Nicki Griffith — are members of the Chicago Winds, an organization in the Women's National Football Conference (WNFC) — a professional women's tackle football league.
"We're clearly passionate about football," Karos told USA TODAY Sports. "From my standpoint, I can't be asking so many girls in the state to try something new without me trying something new."
Looking to build a strong female staff
While flag football has been a part of Karos life for sometime, the venture into tackle was something new for her — and she wasn't simply looking to play. Instead, Karos was looking to sharpen her football knowledge, while also looking to recruit staff members.
"My main reason to join was to learn more about football," Karos said of joining the WNFC. "We've always been serious here at Willowbrook about football. I wanted to learn more, and I also wanted to get more women on my staff who already had that confidence in football."
From the get-go, Karos has been serious about having women on her staff. Her first assistant coach was none other than one of her former Willowbrook stars, Rimon Kari, who joined the staff in 2024.
Kari was the quarterback for the Willowbrook team that won a state title before the sport was sanctioned by the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) and instead was just a pilot program run by the NFL's Chicago Bears. She now works with the Bears as a football development associate.
But one female staffer was not enough for Karos. After joining the Winds, she struck up friendships with Matheson and Griffith, both of whom were eventually roped into joining Karos and Kari on the Warriors' staff.
"For a lot of our girls, we might be their first female coach ever," Karos said. "To me, that's way too late. So I'm going to bombard them with female coaches, which is my plan."
Willowbrook went 21-6 in the first season of the sport being sanctioned by the IHSA in the fall of 2024. After that season, Karos joined the Winds and for the 2025 season, Matheson and Griffith joined her coaching staff.
The Warriors have gone 38-2 over the last two seasons, with one of those losses coming to runner-up Whitney Young in the state semifinal, 12-6.
Karos was named the IHSA 2024-2025 Girls Flag Football Coach of the Year.
"It's good, because they understand exactly what we're going through," Willowbrook senior quarterback Madeline Carine told USA TODAY Sports. "At any point, they can rise us up and lift us. While males, they don't understand fully, they still try to be there."
For Karos, the goal is to help grow girls' and women's sports by having more role models for the girls to follow a potential future career path as coaches.
"That's definitely inspirational for us," Carine said. "I feel like maybe I want to be a coach. That's definitely because of our coaches right here."
How playing with the Chicago Winds builds credibility for Rachel Karos and her staff
The WNFC, which is a professional, full-contact 11-on-11 women's football league featuring 16 teams across the country, was created in 2018 by former player Odessa Jenkins, with its inaugural season taking place in 2019.
The Chicago Winds were founded in 2024 by President and Owner Angelique Smith, a former player for the Chicago Force. By starting the franchise, Smith became the first Black woman to hold a majority ownership stake in a professional sports franchise in Chicago.
For Karos, who was a three-sport athlete at Naperville North High School and went on to play basketball and softball at Eastern Illinois, playing tackle football and joining the Winds ahead of the 2025 spring season was a leap of faith.
The experience, Karos says, has been huge in her current role at Willowbrook.
"I am not asking them to do the girls to do anything that I'm not willing to do," Karos said. "The girls don't really get away with complaining to us. I think they think it's cool being around a group of coaches who have played the game.
"It gives us a layer of validity. If I can get frank, it's the difference between how sometimes male coaches are viewed as opposed to females. There's the feeling of we feel like we have to prove ourselves, and we have with the kind of things we have done."
For Carine, who has passed for 922 yards and 13 touchdowns while splitting time with fellow Willowbrook senior Kaitlyn Santos at quarterback, having a coach who plays the position helps her grow her game as well.
"She has helped me through everything, Carine said. "(After plays), I go to her immediately to make sure I did this right; What did I do wrong? What can I change on this? Everything."
Rachel Karos' impact extends beyond Willowbrook and the Winds
While Karos served as the Winds' backup, Smith called her an invaluable part of the team. In addition to her leadership on the field, Smith said Karos was also the nominee for the Winds for the 2025 WNFC Woman of the Year.
"Rachel has been an important leader with the Chicago Winds," Smith told USA TODAY Sports. "She's helped drive the team's community engagement, which has been huge. She's very active with USA Football, flag football and also volunteers with Chicago Bears flag, helping introduce and empower young girls through football, which I think is very important.
"Rachel isn't just an athlete. She uses the game to serve others, and I think that's huge."
And Karos' impact on the sport doesn't stop there.
While she already has a full schedule as a teacher at Willowbrook, the varsity head coach for the flag football team and playing with the Winds in the spring, Karos also serves as an assistant at the collegiate level at Benedictine University in Lisle, Illinois.
"We try coaching as much as we can," Karos said. "I am not ready to take the full plunge into fully coaching (at college) because I don't want to give (coaching at Willowbrook) up. I feel like once I do that, I would. I am not someone who wants to do something at 50%, I want to do 100%."
The Willowbrook Warriors (18-1) flag football team is the No. 2 seed in the St. Charles North Sectional. They will take on No. 15 Naperville North High School — Karos' alma mater — in the regional semifinals at 5 p.m. Monday, Oct. 5.
Smith marvels at how Karos is able to juggle her full-time job as a teacher with everything else she does.
"It's remarkable, and I honestly don't know how she does it," Smith said. "But I am glad that she's here and part of our organization and I am sure Willowbrook feels the same. She's truly a superwoman. Women and athletes like Rachel, they're dime a dozen."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: How a 'superwoman' who plays pro tackle football has built a flag football powerhouse
