Miami Jackson (Fla.) Senior High School made history Monday by hiring the first female head football coach in state history, according to Andre C. Fernandez of the Miami Herald.
Peter Ariz of CanesInSight.com was the first to report Miami Jackson’s plans to hire Lakatriona Brunson as its new head coach. The school introduced her and the new assistant head coach, Luther Campbell, in a press conference Monday afternoon.
“Today is historic,” Brunson said. “We’re here to change the atmosphere at Miami Jackson and get some W’s on the board. I know I can do it... . You all just wait around for it. It’s gonna be some big things coming up.”
Brunson has quite an extensive athletic background. She graduated from Miami Northwestern Senior High School, where she threw discus and shot put, and she also played football for the Miami Fury in the Independent Women’s Football League during the mid-2000s, according to Fernandez.
In recent years, Brunson became well-known due to her role on the TV series South Beach Tow, a scripted show based off the real-life experiences of workers at Tremont Towing. In an interview with the Herald’s Madeleine Marr in September 2014, she described life as a reality star as “not glamorous,” adding, “The worst thing is the long hours. It’s a hustle, and you do have to work.”
Outside of her gig on South Beach Tow, Brunson has been working as a physical education teacher at Miami Jackson in recent years, which made her eligible for the school’s head coaching position. The 55-year-old Campbell was “rumored to be in contention” for the position, per Fernandez, but was not eligible because he isn’t a certified teacher in Miami-Dade County public schools.
Campbell, a former member of the rap group 2 Live Crew, has worked as a defensive coordinator at several other area high schools in recent years, according to the Herald.
“At first I thought, ‘This [expletive] might be crazy because I take football real serious,’” he told the paper. “But after a conversation with her, I said, ‘Naw, she knows her football. She’s on point. I don’t take this as a joke. I didn’t want to be a part of no circus.”
Jackson’s previous head football coach, University of Miami alumnus and former NFL player Earl Little, stepped down in January after two years at the helm. According to USA Today, Brunson is at least the fifth female to be hired as a high school’s head football coach across the nation in the past three years.