WASHINGTON --- The football players at Calvin Coolidge Senior High School, Mayor Adrian Fenty and a room full of cheering staff needed only one word to describe her: coach.
Natalie Randolph, a 29-year-old biology and environmental sciences teacher, was introduced Friday as the coach of the school's Coolidge Colts. She's believed to be the nation's only female head coach of a high school varsity football team.
"While I'm proud to be part of what this all means," Randolph said, "being female has nothing to do with it. I love football. I love football, I love teaching, I love these kids. My being female has nothing to do with my support and respect for my players on the field and in the classroom."
Randolph was chosen from about 15 candidates after the previous coach resigned. She played six seasons as a receiver for the D.C. Divas of the National Women's Football Association.
She also was an assistant coach from 2006-08 at another D.C. high school, H.D. Woodson.
Now she's a head coach, ready to dispel naysayers. And she doesn't plan to do it by screaming in the kids' faces.
"I'm probably more Tony Dungyesque," said Randolph. "I'm soft-spoken, so me yelling is not me. I'm going to be me. That's what I do in the classroom. When I get observed, the observers say 'I didn't expect you to be able to handle this class,' but I do what I have to do to get it done."
Keith Bulluck, a 10-year NFL veteran, posted on Twitter that he's "not saying it can't be done or shouldn't be done. Football is clearly a mans sport & it's 2 be seen how young men take to their coach being a woman."
Coolidge went 6-4 last season under coach Jason Lane and has a state-of-the-art field, so it's not necessarily a school that needs to draw attention. Principal Thelma Jarrett insisted that in "no way" was this a publicity stunt.
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