Natalie Randolph Becomes First Female High School Football Head Coach

The Washington Post is reporting that a press conference will be held today to announce the hiring of Natalie Randolph as the head football coach for Coolidge High School in Washington DC.

You heard that right, a woman is going to coach a boys varsity high school football team.  Before you go chanting “publicity stunt” take a look at her credentials.

She was an assistant coach for Coolidge in 2006.  She played for the now defunct women’s professional league DC Divas. The article states she was a wide receiver from 2004-2008.  See the picture below.  That’s her tackling the s**t out of somebody.

One difference between her and a male coach is that she won’t be allowed in the locker room right after games.  Her post game speeches are going to have to be given somewhere else.  She will need male assistants to keep the locker room under control when the boys are changing.

For Randolph, knowing her football won’t be the hard part.  It will be motivating the players and getting them to buy in at first.  Her father was a football coach also (pictured left), so she at least has seen how it’s done her whole life.

“She can do it,” said H.D. Woodson Coach Greg Fuller, who hired Randolph as an assistant in 2006. “She’s a no-nonsense kind of coach. She’s a disciplinarian. She handled [the questions about being a woman coaching football] very well because she takes on any challenge you put in front of her.”

You know other coaches aren’t jumping for joy at the prospect of losing to a woman.

According to the Post, one D.C. high school football coach said: “All I know is, I don’t want to be the first one to lose to her. That’s going to be wild.”

Keep an eye on her over the next couple years.  It will be very interesting to see if a woman can indeed succeed at this position held up until now solely by men.