Good for her

Natalie Randolph will be introduced today as the head coach at Calvin Coolidge Senior High School. She is believed to be the first woman to coach a high school varsity football team in the United States.

Randolph, 29, was an assistant coach at another D.C. high school, H.D. Woodson, in 2006-08.

She also played in the National Women's Football Association.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/12/sports/football/12sportsbriefs-coach.html

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/03/11/woman.football.coach/

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/03/12/SP4S1CDUSM.DTL

In a story about Randolph's hiring Thursday, The Washington Post reported that another Washington teacher, Wanda Oates, was named head football coach at a different D.C. high school in 1985. But she was removed a day later after coaches who didn't want to coach against her pressured the school district, the Post reported.

I think this is great. Best of luck to her and her players. What does it really take to be a coach, or a HEAD coach? Certainly, gender has no bearing. Afterall, haven't men been coaching girls sports for decades, so what's different?

Football isn't that difficult a game. It doesn't require that you have to have played it. It doesn't require you to have to have extensive knowledge of strategy (especially if you're the head coach). The main elements of coaching are being able to establish relationships to communicate - this can be epitomized by the traits of leadership. If you can lead, you can coach. I don't see why a woman cannot be as an effective leader as a man.