"I can do it," she said. "I'm qualified. I played the game. I know the kids. I love the kids."
Those were the words Natalie Randolph spoke as she was introduced as Coolidge High School football coach this weekend in Washington, D.C.
While not the first female to coach high school level football, Randolph deserves to be congratulated for tossing her name in the hat this past January when the school was looking for a football coach.
According to the Washington Post, Natalie was well qualified to coach the team: she had played five seasons for the D.C. Divas of the Independent Women's Professional League and had also served two seasons as an assistant coach at another D.C. high school.
Randolph's confident words were pretty much exactly what I said to the age director of the local soccer club when I volunteered to coach a boy's U-14 team no one else seemed willing to coach. Unlike Randolph, I had not played the game growing up (field hockey and basketball were the sports I played in high school). But I had taken a course and obtained a license from the state soccer association, and, as a mom of triplet sons, I knew a thing or two about communicating with boys.
As I wrote in my book, Home Team Advantage: The Critical Role of Mothers in Youth Sports, and in numerous articles for this site, I am convinced that there are lots of reasons why women and mothers make great youth sports coaches, and that more should be coaching.
Has your son ever had a female coach? If he has, we would love for you to share your story!
