An uplifting sports story: Natalie Randolph Has Won Over Players (only female head FB coach)

[Are_grits_groceries]

Natalie Randolph has won over Coolidge High’s players by taking them to Turkey Bowl and focusing on their futures


Randolph has spent late nights alternating between drawing up lesson plans and planning the team’s defense, a byproduct of her increased role this season due to a smaller coaching staff. She has helped her players overcome their personal challenges, from poor grades to behavioral struggles.

“I don’t have any other choice,” Randolph said. “I have to succeed. I don’t have a choice.

Coolidge coach Natalie Randolph prepares her team to play in this week's Turkey Bowl, an annual high school football game played between D.C.'s top public school teams on Thanksgiving day. Randolph, who drew national attention last year for becoming one of just two known female high school football coaches, has turned the Coolidge football program around in short time.

To her players, she’s an inspiring and motivating figure.

“We trust her,” said senior defensive end-tight end Chuck Gaines, who met Randolph when he took her environmental science class as a ninth grader and considers having her as a coach a life-changing experience. “Not that we didn’t trust coaches before. But we actually trust Ms. Randolph. We are her life, basically. She sacrifices her life.”

Read more about all she does: http://tinyurl.com/7euvy58

If more coaches and schools followed up with players like she does, the programs would really help countless numbers. This goes for all sports.

And remember, she is one of those lazy teachers we keep hearing about.

Go Coolidge! Go Natalie!