You walk into Williams stadium on a Friday night with your friends. You smell the aroma of fresh popcorn and pizza in the air. You go to buy some pizza because the smell of it makes you hungry. As you’re walking toward the student section with your food, everyone begins cheering and chanting. “Touchdown!” the crowd screams. You look at the score board and it reads 23 to 14 and East High is winning. Then you hear the band start to play East High’s Fight song. Then, you look onto the field to see a new coach jumping in excitement. You’ve never seen her before, so you ask your friends. “Who is that?” Meet Renata Rice, East High School’s new assistant coach. She just started this year and is super excited to see the Scarlets soar. More importantly, the coaches are just excited to make these young people into adults and let them go into the world. “I don’t get mad when we lose, I get mad when players don’t play to their full potential,” Coach Tyrone Tyler said.
Coach Rice grew up in Des Moines and she just loves it here. She used to work at Hoover as a basketball coach. She decided she wanted to give East and football a try. “I’ve loved playing football since I was a kid. The opportunity to play was not always there,” Rice said. So far, she loves the environment. Rice loves how inviting the team and coaches are, they make her feel so welcome.
“I feel like this is a program I can grow with,” Rice said.
Coach Rice is excited to see East High to its full potential. There are a lot of stereotypes about East but that didn’t stop her from coming to the East High football team. There is a lot of stereotypes about a female football coach but according to Coach Tyler, there isn’t anything different. “I think it’s more about football and having the understanding of the game and coaching the position you are supposed to coach. She understands the game and she know the drills, at the end of the day it’s still do your job,” Tyler said.
There are many reasons why Rice would coach football. “I love the competitiveness of football,” Rice said. She just likes to be a part of coaching these young individuals and she wouldn’t want to be doing anything else. Rice is the first female coach in the state for high school football. “The Scarlets have been amazing and welcomed me with open arms,” Rice said. Tyler just likes how Rice is doing and wouldn’t trade her for anyone else “Coach Rice is doing a pretty awesome job,” Tyler said.
There is a lot of emotions that can occur when people bring up a female football coach but the coaches and team both let her in with open and loving arms. “Just feels like a coach, she’s good and we like her,” Demetrious Hilson said. The head coach Tyler loved the idea of having her join the staff and likes her wanting to help with the team. “If she says something then it’s just as solid as what one of the guy coaches would say,” Tyler said. She just loves being able to have the opportunity to work with these young football players. “Best thing we can do after a loss is analyze our strengths and weaknesses and continue to get better every day,” Rice said.