Natalie Randolph to Coach Coolidge High School Football Team

[DES]

The movie Wildcats?

Football...............................It's the sport of kings, better than diamond rings, football, wildcats, football, wildcats!        Goldie Hawn was good in this movie, that showcased young Wesley Snipes, and Mykelti Williamson.

And Woody Harleson

[RamMan4Life]

Black men are scarce in nearly every school system!

[NovaSkegee]

DC High School Hires Female Football Coach with UVa Ties

Natalie Randolph, a former track star at the University of Virginia, has been named the head football coach at Calvin Coolidge Senior High School in Washington, D.C. She is said to be the first woman to coach a high school varsity football team in the U.S.


Associated Press

By Alan Goldenbach
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, March 13, 2010

When Coolidge High announced in January that it was looking for a new football coach, one of the school's science teachers was sitting in a conference room in the building when a colleague asked, "Why don't you put your name in for it?"

Natalie Randolph chewed on the idea for a bit. She didn't know of another woman who was coaching high school football, but that didn't concern her. To Randolph, who had played five seasons for the D.C. Divas of the Independent Women's Professional League and also served two seasons as an assistant coach at another D.C. high school, it came down to a few simple facts.

"I can do it," she said. "I'm qualified. I played the game. I know the kids. I love the kids."

And with those thoughts in her mind, Randolph, 29, walked into Room 134 at Coolidge on Friday afternoon to the applause of family members and former teammates, hoots and hollers from students, and flashbulbs from a throng of media and proudly took over as the Colts' next football coach. She joins just one other woman in the country holding a football head coaching position: Debbie Vance, who has led Lehman High in the Bronx, N.Y., the past two seasons.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/12/AR2010031202576.html

_________________________________

Associated Press

Natalie Randolph, center, 29, reacts as Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty, left, proclaims March 12 as Natalie Randolph Day during a news conference as she is introduced as the new head football coach at Calvin Coolidge Senior High School in Washington, on Friday, March 12, 2010.
(AP Photo/Cliff Owen) (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)






Science teacher Natalie Randolph, 29, smiles as she is introduced as the new head football coach at Calvin Coolidge Senior High School in Washington, on Friday, March 12, 2010.
(AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

[smdeagles]

I know this wont be a popular opinion but I believe this is one of the most rediculous things I have seen.

There was a female coach at the parks in my hometown that won the championsip with an undefeated team that had one of the best defenses in the city and she was the DC.  She got started by stealing her brother play book and studying game films with him and she has a great knowledge of the game.  Coaching is not solely based on one's ability to play the game, but on one's ability to understand and teach the game.

It is my understanding that one of the best coaches in FVSU history never ever play football. Iknow that I never play pro football, but I have had a chance to talk to some head football coaches at the college level and pro level and they were all impressed with my knowledge of the game.  Until you give that person a chance you will never know what they can do. This person does have an advantage that most women may not have she was a football player.  Although it was in the women league she did play and we do not know what knowledge she gained from that. In fact, I recalled reading a story about a player in the NFL who stated that best coach he ever had was his mother who play Linebacker in a women football league.

I say all this to say Let us give her a chance to see what she can do. If she wins a chanpionship one day what will you say then.

Cats....there in lies the problem.  All everyone thinks about is championships.  IMO that is the very least thing you measure HS sports by.

Far too many of the boys at Coolidge are raised by single mommas, there are no male teachers.  The ONLY male leadership figures in their lives for the most part are their coaches.  Now they do not even have that.  Where will these young men get to experience seeing someone being a man?  Who are their male role models?  Most of the problems we are having with teens now are due to no male figures in the house.  It is much more difficult for a woman to raise a man.......I did not say impossible.  But for every one you show me that did, I can show you a prison filled with those that didn't.  Even in the cases where it works many times there is a coach or a principal, etc. in the background to help out.

God bless the woman who got the job.  She may be the next Vince Lombardi.  Nothing against her.  However, there is a void in the lives of many of the boys she will lead.......a void that she cannot fill.  I understand she is looking to hire a majority female staff....if that is true then shame on her.  You can win championships and still fail.  

[EWCgrad]

Dang SMDEAGLES, you tricked me with the whole, "championships,  thats all people think about!" I was about to be like you right why else play?  but then you hit me with the male void and all, and I feel you. Good post.  I give you an A+

[Callystarr]

Yeah why don't we surpress woman back into pre-1920.
 

Responses like in this thread is why, we have some of the stupid sh*t going on in this world.

Women in sports, a complete minority *smh*...but yet nobody has a problem with a man taking over a womans team..

I wonder if there was arguments of needing a female figure  wait there was none because it wasn't an issue

[smdeagles]

Yeah why don't we surpress woman back into pre-1920.
 

Responses like in this thread is why, we have some of the stupid sh*t going on in this world.

Women in sports, a complete minority *smh*...but yet nobody has a problem with a man taking over a womans team..

I wonder if there was arguments of needing a female figure  wait there was none because it wasn't an issue

Callystar.....my friend, I never once mentioned surpressing anyone.  However, I am tired of our young boys being surpressed by decisions made by the adults in their lives.  This is not about womens lib.  This is about what is best for those young Black boys at Coolidge.  Perhaps if you were familiar with Coolidge HS and the surrounding areas you would be better able to understand my point.  As far as girl's teams being coached by men, girls need male figures in their life as well. 

I am tired of our Black children being used as guinea pigs.  No one knows how this will ultimately work out.  If it works out...fine, if not, oh well.  The mayor and all the politicians were at the announcement, not because this is some historical event but because it had national news coverage.  The coach is trying to assemble an all female staff....what is that about?  It all smacks of once again using our children for some sort of personal and political agenda all in the name of advancement.

Since you suggest I am looking to get back to the 20's, allow me to correct you.  I am looking to go back to way before then when "The head of woman is man and the head of man is Christ".  That may seem like some extreme right wing view but if you look at the plight of the family in America it can be directly drawn back to men being out of position.  I think it is wonderful that we have women that are doctors, lawyers, pastors, mayors, etc.  However, there are a few things women can't do, they can't be fathers, husbands or examples of what it is to be a man in the community.  This development IMO is just another step in the wrong direction.       

[FunCkMaster]

As far as the lady being named head coach, I can deal with that. But hiring a majority female staff. Don't know. Basically for the same reasons SMDEagles just expressed. These boys who are trying to grow into manhood need positive examples of men. As a man, I hate to say this, but unfortunately there are more positive female examples than male examples at this particular time, for a myriad of reasons. This makes it crucial for these young guys to know that while yes,a woman can know as much as a man about football, there is still no substitute for a male figure in some situations.

As a volunteer youth basketball coach/program director myself where about 75-80 percent of the young men in our program are growing up without a father in the home, you just see and experience how much these young men want and need positive MALES in their lives. They already have a boatload of females (positive and negative) in their lives, but they need some type of positive influence from males..How do I know? I am told this by the single mothers every week during the spring and summer of our program how much this means to their sons to see us out there working with, teaching, coaching and mentoring their sons because they don't get enough of it elsewhere...

[Cholly]

Well, let's hope for the reasons smdeagles pointed out that she is NOT allowed to hire a majority female staff.

That being said however, she has REPEATEDLY stated in numerous interviews that her #1 priority is to get the kids graduating and doing something with their lives. She said football is a vehicle, but that they have to be ready to drive it. Now I think that is the PERFECT attitude to have in her particular situation, and even though she has two X chromosomes instead of one, she will be an EXCELLENT role model for those young black males.

In this case, her character, intellect, and cultural awareness MORE than counter-balances the need for a head football coach as male role model. The kids can find that elsewhere.

[Bison 4 Life]

Was she that outstanding a candidate or were the males that poor?
She has to be above board in everything.

[EL-COTTON]

 GO Figure.. A man can't have nothing no more. What ever happen to barefoot, naked and in the KITCHEN.  Yes I said it.. EL. C.