A Football Coach Used to Tests Insists Her Players Pass Theirs

[Are_grits_groceries]

WASHINGTON — When Natalie Randolph was named the head coach of Calvin Coolidge Senior High School’s football team in March, her players wasted no time in testing her.


They wanted to know exactly how much Randolph, a petite woman with the high-pitched voice of a schoolgirl, knew about their sport. They asked her about the rules. They questioned her about plays.

“When we heard that Ms. Randolph was the new coach, a lot of us thought it was a joke,” Daniel West, a junior fullback and linebacker, said. “I was like, ‘Ms. Randolph? The science teacher here? No way.’ She doesn’t look like a stereotypical coach who’s big, masculine and who yells. But she knew what she was talking about.”
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Members of the hiring committee said she won the job over more than 15 other applicants — including two former N.F.L. players, several Pop Warner coaches and a retired Army brigadier general — because she emphasized one thing that those men did not: helping the players in the classroom.

When Randolph, who was born and raised here, gave her presentation to the hiring committee, she was clear about her goals.

“I hope that they know that I really don’t care about winning football games,” she said. “But I do care about school. My players will be productive citizens someday, not delinquents on a curb. Athletes are just not made to do academics enough, and that’s nationwide. But I’m going to change that.”

In some ways, a coach that emphasizes academics over athletic achievement may be even rarer than a woman coaching at this level, said Derrick Mickels, the director of school programs for Friends of Bedford, a private management organization that works with Coolidge.

Randolph, meeting with a player before class.

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Randolph is just as persistent on the football field. She often leads running drills, and rarely yells. Bob Headen, who worked with Randolph when she was the receivers coach at H. D. Woodson, a nearby high school, said her coaching style worked.

“She’s harder on the players than I am,” Headen, one of her assistants, said. “Once when we had players running their mouth, I went to deal with them and she said, ‘No, I got them.’ Then she did her thing.”
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For Coolidge players, though, there is a price to pay in the classroom.

After school, Randolph’s players must attend an hourlong study hall, where they do homework and receive tutoring or help with SAT preparation. She also requires each player to have his teachers fill out a weekly behavior and progress report. Those who fail to do so must do extra running after practice or are barred from practicing. During the season, they will be barred from games. She plans to give helmet stickers to those who receive good reports.
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“Nobody has come out and said it, but all of them are probably thinking that they don’t want to be the first person to lose to her,” Toby Strong, Coolidge’s athletic director, said. “In the last several weeks, I’ve left messages with schools around here, in Ohio, Delaware, West Virginia, everywhere. Nobody has called me back. I believe it’s partly because there’s a reluctance to play a team with a woman coach.”

Not everything, however, has been a struggle. College recruiters have contacted Randolph, giving her hope that some of her players might receive scholarships. She has been making highlight tapes to send to college coaches.
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More at: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/10/sports/10coach.html?pagewanted=2&ref=sports

For those who say that football isn't being emphasized enough, it has been just about the only emphasis in a lot of programs for years. Lip service to academics may be paid.

I hope she wins in both areas. Proving that such a combination such as hers can work would be invaluable. I hope she is flexible enough to adjust methods while not adjusting her emphasis.

I will be looking at DC high school football scores this year. I am rooting for her!

[Prometheus Bound]

1. Nice story. Rec.

[knitter4democracy]

2. I've taught with football coaches. I wish we had her.

I had the honor of teaching with one of the greats in N.E. Ohio, and he always made it clear to his students that academics came first. Still, he didn't do this stuff--it would have made an even bigger difference if he had.

[RT Atlanta]

3. I like this kind of story...

emphasizing the STUDENT in "student-athlete"

[Javaman]

4. This is the way it should be...

when I ran track in HS, my dean was my coach. I had to maintain at least a B average.

He knew, he checked.

If we slacked, we were told to sit out practice. If we showed repeated failures in school, we would be suspended from the team until our grades improved.

There are no free rides in life and not everyone becomes a star, regardless of what the media would like us to think.

[Are_grits_groceries]

5. Amen! nt