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She's a Warrior
First-year coach Natalie Randolph, 26, is believed to be the only woman on a varsity football coaching staff in the Washington area.
(P. Keres - The Post)
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"We're in a classroom when it was announced," she said. "On the way out, they just said, 'All right, coach, see you later.'
"They were really good about it. I expected more backlash. I'm this small woman trying to teach them football."
But she had the best motivational tool -- the threat of embarrassment. When she lined the wide receivers up for individual drills, Randolph played defensive back against each of them. She squared up a few feet across from each receiver, and when the whistle blew, she planted both hands into their chests, trying to throw them off-route.
"Don't let me manhandle you," she yelled at each of them. "I'm a girl."
"We didn't know what to think," senior wide receiver Charles Stephens said. "Then she started to jam us and we started to look at each other, like, wow, she's serious. I thought, 'Man, am I going to get embarrassed?' "
It continues at the end of practice, when she joins the players in running sprints.
"Don't let me beat you," she warned them as they ran one sprint after another.
And if she does, it's a lesson learned.
"It teaches these boys how to respect a woman and that carries on in the rest of their lives," said Gary Stewart, whose son. Antwan, is a senior wide receiver for the Warriors. "They'll learn to watch what they say wherever they go."
While Randolph had the power of discipline over the players, she had to establish herself with the other coaches.
"After the first week, I had more apprehension about the other coaches than about the players," she said. "It was about proving myself to the other coaches."
Woodson defensive coordinator Bob Headen, who has coached football since the mid-1960s and was Woodson's head coach from 1974 to 1999, admitted he was skeptical at first.
