WASHINGTON -- When Coolidge High School announced two months ago that it was looking for a football coach, one of the school's science teachers was sitting in a conference room in the building when a colleague asked, "Why don't you put your name in for it?"

Natalie Randolph chewed on the idea for a bit. She didn't know of another woman who was coaching high school football, but that didn't concern her. To Randolph, who had played five seasons in a women's professional football league and also served two seasons as an assistant at another D.C. high school, it came down to a few simple facts.

"I can do it," she said. "I'm qualified. I played the game. I know the kids. I love the kids."

And with those thoughts in her mind, Randolph, 29, walked into Room 134 at Coolidge Friday afternoon to the applause of family and former teammates, hoots and hollers from students, and flashbulbs from a throng of media and proudly took over as the Colts' next football coach, joining just a handful of women nationally who have ever held the position.

Mayor Adrian Fenty opened the press conference, saying, "Natalie Randolph, like all the head coaches who preceded her ... is being honored because she's the best person for this job."

The Post first reported Randolph's hiring Tuesday evening, giving Randolph two days to prepare for her formal introduction, and to absorb the inevitable criticism and judgment that football is one of the few remaining all-boys clubs.

"People are going to say stuff wherever you go. I can't control what people say," said Randolph, sporting a grin the width of a football, and earrings that matched the orange Coolidge banner on the wall behind her. "The first thing is, I love football, no matter whose domain it is. I'm going to do it. If I let people dictate what I do, I wouldn't be where I am.

"While I'm proud to be a part of what this all means, being female has nothing to do with it."

One of the most difficult groups of people to potentially sway proved to be the most easily convinced. When Randolph met with about 40 members of the team in a school conference room Tuesday afternoon, some of the players had already heard rumors of her appointment. After Principal Thelma Jarrett introduced Randolph, there was overwhelming applause because Randolph is a popular and well-liked teacher among the Coolidge student body.

Some of the players had already played for a female coach in boys' club games, according to sophomore Oluwakemi Bamico, so seeing Randolph take control of the program was not a new phenomenon.

"We're finally getting a coach and a coach that I like," said Bamico, who took Randolph's environmental science class last year. "We all respect her as a person, and that's all that matters.

Mike White's "High School Sports Edition" videos are featured exclusively on PG+, a members-only web site from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.