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In the beginning there was so much to do. Put together a coaching staff, evaluate talent, install offensive and defensive systems, set the overall tone for her team, and, given that this is high school ball, set the academic standards, too. Natalie Randolph, head coach of the Coolidge High School football team, did it - with the whole world watching.
"When I interviewed her [Randolph] and we started talking about academics, it was like, 'this woman gets it,'" said Principal Thelma M. Jarrett, principal at Coolidge High School. Make no mistake, Jarrett, now in her fourth year at Coolidge, wants to win football games. She is a regular presence on the sidelines of Colts games, but she also, "wants to change the whole culture of athletics and academics."
So Coolidge hired Randolph, a former 400 meter hurdler at the University of Virginia and former wide out for the D.C. Divas full-contact women's football team, a tremendously gifted athlete, but also the...
