Photo by Michael Starghill

Back in March, Natalie Randolph was named the new head coach of the Calvin Coolidge High School football team. Her job announcement was accompanied with much fanfare, getting the whole Mayor Fenty treatment with a press conference the designation of “Natalie Randolph Day.” Randolph is the only female football head coach in D.C., and is speculated to be the only in the entire United States.

Now, some five months after Natalie Randolph Day, the coach and her team are preparing to take the field for the new season. The team made it through conditioning over the summer, and is now starting their first official practices. They are now dealing with the typical concerns of practice with a new coach, as well as the pressure of being under the microscope of the city, the nation and the world.

Randolph’s employment is groundbreaking for gender equality. As we reported previously, a woman was hired in 1985 to coach football at Ballou High School. Wanda Oates was on the job for only one day when she was dismissed amid concerns from other coaches.

Twenty-five years have passed since Oates was dismissed, but some things have not changed. A piece in Friday’s Washington Post highlights some of the lingering sexist views that remain:

Several area coaches have said since her hiring that they fear losing to a Randolph-led Coolidge team, simply because of what her gender signifies.

With that tension present, Randolph is feeling that pressure to perform. If the Colts struggle, then her critics will be proven correct.

“She’s aware of it all,” Marilys Randolph said. “She’d like to be able to do this without having to put so much pressure on herself. It puts additional pressure on her that she wants to win and prove herself to everyone who doubts her.”

Her players are sharing that burden with her.

“If we lose,” West said, “then people will say that all this hubbub is just a big circus. We’re a team. We have to show that, and winning is all that matters.”

Best of luck to Randolph and the Coolidge Colts as they prepare for the 2010-2011 season.