TAMPA — Before the start of training camp, Mickey Grace was checking in at the front desk of the Bucs' team hotel when she saw defensive line coach Brentson Buckner and introduced herself as a new intern in the football operations department.

"D-line coaches are a breed, and you know one when you meet one," Grace said. "He made some joke about the line, and I said 'Not if you're a three-technique and you've got to respect the A-gap.'

"He was like: 'Who are you?' "

Grace, 25, is the one smiling the most at Bucs training camp, taking an internship that could be a desk job and politely extending it into as much as Dirk Koetter will allow.

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She's a rare woman who has played and coached tackle football, and she's completely in her element.

"This has been an amazing experience," Grace said. "Coach Koetter has allowed me to see and be involved across the board, in multiple departments. It's been an amazing blessing I did not see coming."

A community of women in football

Grace and the Bucs' other operations intern, Andie Djamal, found the Bucs in February in Orlando at the NFL's Women's Careers in Football Forum, where the Bucs had a considerable presence.

"It helps having a community of people that can relate to where you are," said Djamal, who graduated from USC and worked with the Trojans football team, including current Bucs running back Ronald Jones and defensive tackle Stevie Tu'ikolovatu.

"The Bucs are a great organization in terms of diversity, and there at the forum, they said 66 percent of their vice presidents are women. That was something I noted, underlined, highlighted, something that was really important. Not only did they speak on diversity, they act on it."

Peyton Barber and Ronald Jones figure to get the most touches this season. Shaun Wilson says he has to "get in where I can fit in." #Bucs #Buccaneers @DukeFOOTBALL @NFLSTROUD @TB_Times #Duke https://t.co/6KmWRGV4MV — TampaBayTimesSports (@TBTimes_Sports) August 3, 2018

Grace, too, found herself surrounded by women either working in football or hoping like her to do so. She remembers one breakout session at the forum where she saw a panel comprised exclusively of women in NFL jobs — all from the same team.

"The entire stage was maybe six women, and it was the first time everyone came from the same team," she said. "You cyberstalk all the speakers, and every single woman on the stage was a high-level executive, they were all very interested in helping qualified women see what is out there, and they were all from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers."

Darcie Glazer Kassewitz, president of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Foundation, was there, as were were team vice presidents Nikki Donofrio (marketing and community relations), Jessica Worley (corporate partnerships) and Kristin Hamwey (human resources). For Grace, it was a reminder of how many women can have careers in the NFL. Her dream was a reality in front of her.

"These are women who make decisions, who are still very feminine and use that to make amazing decisions that teams may not get to have without that diversity," she said. "There have been women making football go for a long time. There are some mothers, as we call them, who have been adamant about their jobs. There's a place where necessity meets requirement, and at that point, nothing else matters. That's a really fun place to be."

Mickey Grace has moved beyond the confines of her Bucs internship to work with players during training camp. DOUGLAS R. CLIFFORD | Times

‘Fully in a dream’

Football has been a part of Grace's life as long as she can remember, starting as a fan in a family that made the sport a part of every fall weekend.

"Monday nights mean football. Sundays mean Jesus and football," she said of her upbringing.

Grace played tackle football for her high school in Philadelphia. It was the only fall sport offered for boys or girls, and after being initially cast as a kicker, she insisted on moving to defensive line. Just 6 feet and 165 pounds, she still got sacks, playing physically enough to even break one opponent's ankle on a tackle.

With his shoulder pain gone and arm strength improved, Jameis Winston may never have thrown the football better in Tampa Bay than he is right now. #Bucs #Buccaneers @Jaboowins #Jameis @TB_Times @NFLSTROUD https://t.co/kYhk83MwnC — TampaBayTimesSports (@TBTimes_Sports) August 3, 2018

"Someone told me I couldn't," she said. "That was the green light. The light has been green ever since."

Grace didn't want publicity as a girl playing a boy's sport, and said many opponents didn't even realize it. "Mickey" isn't necessarily a girl's name on a roster, and Grace specifically tried not to talk much on the field and risk revealing herself.

"They just figured 'Oh, look at this tall d-end,'" she said. "It was interesting. Eventually people started to find out, and once one team knew, the whole league knew. It got to a point where I said 'But last year I sacked you.' You've already done this."

While in college at West Chester, she played rugby, then coached the defensive line at her high school and worked for the Philadelphia Phantomz, a team in the Women's Football Alliance. She has worked as a trainer for NFL players in Philadelphia, including current Eagles like Malcolm Jenkins and Rasul Douglas.

Watching Grace at practice, she is everywhere. When players hit a sled of dummies, she's standing on top, barking encouragement. Coaches use a football on a long stick to simulate the snap, getting linemen to learn not to jump offsides, and as 350-pound men launch forward, she's the one holding that stick.

"This is a dream. I am fully in a dream," she said. "I had a moment the other day where I realized I'm sitting in an NFL facility, working hands-on with the director of football operations and the VP of HR. The head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers knows my name. The equipment staff, everyone here has been so amazing, and I'm getting paid as an assistant. Everything in my life has added up together."

Koetter doesn't think of himself or the Bucs as being progressive, so much as cultivating young minds that have a passion for what they do.

"Mickey has a coaching background, and she definitely has an interesting story," said Koetter, whose father was a football coach and who has a daughter, Kaylee, who now works as an assistant volleyball coach at Illinois-Chicago. "This is rare that anybody working in operations as an intern has a coaching background, male or female. We're giving her a few more opportunities to do things around the players and sit in on meetings. She's not afraid to get right in there."

The NFL has seen more women working in low-level coaching roles, but it's rare to see women coaching men in pro sports. The Lightning have female skating coaches with prospects in development camp and with the team in preseason, and the NBA's San Antonio Spurs now have a top assistant in former WNBA star Becky Hammon.

Last month the Dallas Mavericks hired Jenny Boucek, a former WNBA head coach, as their first female assistant.

"Coaching is coaching," Koetter said. "I think the players have been very receptive. I don't think too much about it at all. If you don't know what you're talking about, the players will see it right off the bat. … I want anybody to follow their dreams and follow their heart, whether it's my kids or anyone else. If coaching is what that is and the opportunities are there, more power to them."

Grace is still an intern, so days are long, starting as early as 4 a.m. to drive a shuttle bus from the team hotel to pick up players for workouts that have her on the field by 8:30, with meetings in the afternoon and into the evening.

Djamal, from Fort Lauderdale, will get a homecoming of sorts when the Bucs open the preseason in Miami on Thursday, a trip she's helping plan and execute in operations. She'll be with the Bucs for the entire season, while Grace only has an internship for preseason through the end of August.

Grace has enjoyed football when she wasn't embraced, when she purposefully hid her gender so it wasn't a thing. Now, she's a woman on the field, helping coach players at the highest level.

"Everyone's like 'Why are you smiling all the time? You must love mornings,'" she said. "I am not a morning person at all. But when you get to be so grateful, so overwhelmed by gratefulness, that you really get to do this … I love every part of this job, everything they allow me to do."

Bucs intern Mickey Grace feels like she’s living in a dream this summer. DOUGLAS R. CLIFFORD | Times

Contact Greg Auman at gauman@tampabay.com and (813) 310-2690. Follow @gregauman.