The Rams announced an inaugural Scouting Apprenticeship program for 10 deserving minority and female candidates to strengthen their pursuit of a career in scouting.
The program will engage participants in experiential training, one-on-one mentorship and networking opportunities through virtual summits and touchpoints, the team said in a release. The program begins this month and goes through the draft in April.
Throughout the year, the scouting apprentices will work with Rams advisors and football operations personnel to expand their scouting skills and experiences, gain insight into the scouting profession and be active participants in the team’s scouting processes.
“Our vision with this apprenticeship is to provide access and opportunity to many talented, aspiring, minority scouts and player evaluators,” Rams General Manager Les Snead said in a statement. “We have to be intentional in identifying, developing and advising these young men and women and offer hands-on experience and mentorship from scouts and personnel professionals at the highest level of sports. It is imperative for us to spend the necessary time to build a successful, ongoing program that will widen the pool of candidates to be the personnel leaders of tomorrow.”
The Rams utilized the NFL’s programming pipeline to identify candidates for the apprenticeship. Each candidate participated in virtual interviews with Rams football operations personnel in June.
The candidates selected are: Beau Bell, the former General Manager of the Philadelphia Soul; Jordan Brown, the Pro Camps’ operations coordinator; James Bullock, the director of compliance for Winston-Salem State University; Willie Edwards, an assistant coach at Brown University; Mechelle Geeter, the University of Maryland’s director of on-campus recruiting; Mickey Grace, Mastery Charter defensive line coach; Cory Moore, Lakewood High School head coach; AJ Pearson, Michigan State student of osteopathic medicine; Sherman Wilson, Memphis University recruiting analyst; and Michael Young, Senior Bowl scout.
