WASHINGTON — When the whistle blew and the opening kickoff sailed through the air on a beautiful late-summer night, Natalie Randolph could finally take a deep breath and focus on the thing she wants to do most — coach football.
Randolph, 30, made her debut Friday night leading the Colts of Coolidge Senior High School. She is believed to be the nation’s only female head coach of a high school varsity team.
But there was no Hollywood ending on this night, as the Colts were thumped 28-0 by Carroll High School, a rude awakening that Randolph shook off with her usual placidity.
“It’s a football game. Like I told the kids, we played a football game. We happened to lose, and we move on,” she said during a postgame news conference that included ESPN, Forbes and a throng of reporters and cameramen from the D.C. metro area.
Coolidge played hard in the first half, but their inexperience, combined with a lack of conditioning, let Carroll pull away in the second half. The Colts struggled to move the ball and never found a rhythm on either side of the ball.
