DC High School Appoints First Female Football Coach

It may take some time getting used to, but Calvin Coolidge Senior High School football players are quickly coming around to their new leader, Coach Randolph. It’s not that this coach is strict or demanding. It’s because Coach Randolph, who joined the team in March, is a woman.

Natalie Randolph is one of the nation’s only female head coach of a high school varsity football team. She stood out among the more than 15 applicants, who include former N.F.L. players, Pop Warner coaches and even a retired Army general, because she promised to help the players in the classroom as much as on the field.

Calvin Coolidge Senior High School consistently battles academic records that are less than stellar and Randolph brings to the table structure and discipline.

But, she is not just a great teacher. This coach is also a great athlete. The 5′ 5″ Randolph was a track star in high school and even played six seasons with the D.C. Divas, a professional team in the Independent Women’s Football League.

Randolph is just as persistent on the football field. She often leads running drills, and rarely yells. Bob Headen, who worked with Randolph when she was the receivers coach at H. D. Woodson, a nearby high school, said her coaching style worked.

“She’s harder on the players than I am,” Headen, one of her assistants, said. “Once when we had players running their mouth, I went to deal with them and she said, ‘No, I got them.’ Then she did her thing.”

Randolph is tough, but players still appreciate the novelty of having a woman in charge. During one practice last month, the junior cornerback Raynard Ware chanted, “Wildcats!” He was referring to the 1986 film in which Goldie Hawn played a coach of an inner-city football team. Other players have asked her if they could call her Mom. [via]