NFL Academy Asia-Pacific Announces New Positions Coach
Heather Marini will join the NFL Academy APAC as a Positional Coach and U.S. College Liaison
The NFL today announced Heather Marini, a Division I U.S. college coach originally from Australia, will make her return to the continent to work with students at the newly launched NFL Academy Asia-Pacific on Australia’s Gold Coast as a positional coach and U.S. college liaison.
The NFL Academy is a major global initiative by the NFL offering talented student athletes the opportunity to combine full-time education alongside intensive training in American football — under the guidance of a world class coaching staff.
Marini spent five seasons in Providence, Rhode Island with Brown University’s football coaching staff as a quarterbacks coach from 2019-2024, after a stint with the New York Jets as a scouting specialist. Marini was the first female positions coach in Division I history and during her tenure with Brown, was the only female positions coach across Division I football.
In addition to her coaching career, Marini played American football competitively and was across the Australian Gridiron scene for 10 years. She spent time with the Boston Renegades of the Women’s Football Alliance — where she won three National Championships — and played for the Monash Warriors, a part of Gridiron Victoria. Marini was also selected to play on the Australian National Team at the 2022 International Federation of American Football (IFAF) Women’s World Championships in Finland.
Marini has strong NFL ties as well, previously a coaching intern with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as part of the Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellowship. She also was invited to attend the NFL’s Women’s Forum on three different occasions and attended the league’s Rookie Coaches Clinic in 2018.
Marini joins Will Bryce, Head of NFL Academy APAC. Bryce is a qualified physiotherapist and strength and conditioning specialist, who assisted in the launch of the league’s first NFL Academy location in the U.K. after leading the NFL’s International Player Pathway (IPP) program.
The NFL Academy APAC (the league’s second Academy location) officially opened in Sept. 2024 and is based at A.B. Paterson College in south-east Queensland, catering to student athletes aged 12-18 years-old.
Only in its first year of operation, the APAC Academy is already garnering significant interest from top-NCAA programs, with one student-athlete receiving a preliminary Division I offer from a major SEC program.
The NFL and A.B. Paterson College, supported by the City of Gold Coast and the Queensland State Government, will also fund and build an elite high-performance facility on existing college grounds, to be completed in 2026, that will be available for community use.