D.C. Public Schools Name First Female Athletic Director

This morning, Mayor Vince Gray and D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson unveiled the school district’s newest athletic director – and for the first time, that person is a woman.

Stephanie Evans, who previously coached basketball at Kentucky State University and Virginia State University and, most recently, was responsible for building the hoops program at the Academy of the Holy Cross in Kensington, Maryland – was praised by Gray upon her appointment for her “keen understanding of the needs of student-athletes in diverse socio-economic environments.” Evans is the second woman to assume a high profile position inside the DCPS sports scene; last year, Natalie Randolph was hired as the head football coach at Calvin Coolidge Senior High School, the first woman to coach a public D.C. high school football team since 1985.

The athletic director job at DCPS has been somewhat of a revolving door in recent years – Evans will be the school system’s fourth AD in the last four years. Of course, given the fairly dismal state of DCPS athletics, that probably shouldn’t come as a big surprise; here’s hoping Evans has what it takes to turn things around.