Football: D.C. high school hires first woman head coach
Now this is interesting. The Washington Post is reporting that Coolidge High in D.C. hired Natalie Randolph to coach its varsity football team. The Post reports that according to Sydney Chambers, a sales consultant for the Clell-Wade Coaches Directory, which maintains a database of all coaches at U.S. colleges, high schools and junior highs, there was no woman among the 15,675 listings of public or private high school football coaches last season. Alan Goldenbach at The Washington Post writes:
When reached Tuesday afternoon, Randolph, 29, confirmed she had accepted the position, but declined to comment further. Coolidge Athletic Director Toby Strong referred all questions to school administration.
One person with knowledge of the situation said Randolph was introduced to the team after school on Tuesday. The boys on the team displayed some initial skepticism, this person said, but Randolph, who played professional football with the D.C. Divas, won them over."Some of the kids tried to test her knowledge of football, and she just shot them down," the person said. "At the end, they were clapping for her. They didn't know she played football."
The source who described the meeting asked not to be identified because school administration officials requested that this information not be released until Friday's news conference.
Stephen Spiewak at MaxPreps.com writes:
Women head coaches in boys sports are rare at the high school level in any sport. Among the more than 16,000 schools that have downloaded varsity football rosters and coaching information onto MaxPreps.com, no females head coaches could be traced.
I say good for her!
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Melendez worked as a correspondent for the San Gabriel Valley Tribune for three years and later landed a job as a freelance writer at the Los Angeles Times before accepting an offer at The Orange County Register covering high schools. Melendez covered Major League Soccer at The Register for three years before being promoted to report on the Lakers, Angels and Dodgers for the Web. Melendez also worked for the Daytona Beach News-Journal, Fresno Bee, Oakland Tribune and The Boston Globe. E-mail opinions, suggestions and tips to miguel.melendez@sgvn.com. |
What a joke!!!
She also attended one of our nation's most elite prep schools, Sidwell Friends, and probably overlapped with Chelsea Clinton (now Sasha and Malia Obama attend the school)and then ran track at UVA. I have a feeling she will be able to hold her own with parents and boosters....But like any other first time and young (29 years) HC, she will experience the immense learning curve going from a wide-outs coach to the head person.