We live in a world where expectations are set, limitations are abounding, and barriers are in existence everywhere. But those obstacles, when broken down to their simplest terms, can only serve one of two purposes. They can either stop you from progressing, or they can give you an interesting story to tell once you’ve overcome them.
In Winston-Salem, North Carolina, one woman has focused on the latter. When the junior varsity football team of Winston-Salem Preparatory Academy took the field for their season opener against Parkland Magnet High School, there was a new face on the sideline. With the opening kickoff of the 2015 Cougars’ season, Angela Lambson became the first female high school head football coach in North Carolina history.
While history was made with her head coaching appointment, Lambson has been a familiar name in the Winston-Salem area for quite some time. After attending a youth flag football game in the late 1990s, she developed a love for the game that has spanned for nearly two decades. Soon after her initial experience with the game, she became a member of the team’s coaching staff.
In 2000, Lambson saw an advertisement for tryouts for the Carolina Cougars, a now defunct women’s professional football team. She decided to attend the tryouts, and eventually became a left tackle for the team. Making a final roster of fewer than 50 women (out of the nearly 300 that tried out), she competed for three seasons until the franchise folded in 2003.
After graduating from Winston-Salem State, she decided to return to coaching, leading the Winston-Salem Tiny Rams, an eighth-grade Pop Warner team, to an American Youth Football League National Championship in 2013. It was around this time that Winston-Salem Prep’s athletic director, Ricky Holt, decided that it was time to field a JV football team, beginning in 2015. In his eyes, as well as the eyes of varsity coach Lamont Scales, the coaching decision was a no-brainer.
As of this writing, the JV Cougars are 2-2 on the year, including Lambson’s first win, a 50-0 victory over Walkertown High School (Walkertown, N.C.).
Coach Lambson’s story is a perfect example of ignoring the odds. It inspires all of us to believe that when you want something, there is no reason it cannot be earned. Congratulations to Angela Lambson and the Winston-Salem Cougars football program on making history in the state!
In the Game/Web-Only Content
“The Love of the Game”
NC Prep Coach Blazing Trail
By James Washington
