Amy Arnold has battled to earn respect as a high school football coach.
MaxPreps.com photo by Jason Skoda
There was a time when there were a lot more onlookers at a Mesa Prep (Ariz.)football practice than just the mosquitoes visiting from the nearby canal.
While the bugs can be persuaded to disperse with a little repellent, as Monsoon head coach Amy Arnold displayed at practice earlier this week, the other pests weren’t as easily swayed to leave. And they wanted more than blood.
So it was going take something stronger than an aerosol can to break down the uneasiness and angst that the fathers brought with them to that initial practice back in 2008.
They were wondering what the athletic director was thinking when Arnold was hired to coach their boys, most playing the game for the first time, in the manliest of all sports. They camped out along the sidelines of the first couple of practices. They were waiting from one misstep, a sign that Arnold was in over her head, or any indication that a woman should not be running a football problem.
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