![]() ![]() “We were put here to teach these kids and show them love.” “What I know is that when I see Konesha, I’m going to give her the biggest hug,” Mayfield said. Mayfield said she’s still working on her game plan for Thursday. “It’s about knowledge and your passion for the game. The football ranks are “no longer just a boys club,” and coaching high schoolers is Rhea’s calling, “give me these babies and let me teach them the game I love,” she said. Rhea has dropped her seniors off at college, brought flowers to their graduation and recently heard from some of her first players - one who just finished MIT and another who is now a marine. When the head coaching job at DuSable opened up again, Rhea’s players went to the principal’s office and told him to hire her. Ever since then, they’ve welcomed me with open arms.” “But after the boys warmed up and I started teaching, they saw I knew what I was talking about. “I was at the first practice ready for someone to say something smart,” Rhea said. She was also a regular at Chicago Tech games, “calling out plays and defense schemes from the stands,” she said.Ĭhicago Tech’s coach took a new job at DuSable - a sports program composed of students at Daniel Hale Williams Prep and Bronzeville Scholastic Academy - and invited Rhea to be the defensive coordinator. After two seasons, she tore her ACL, and her daughter encouraged her to call it quits.īut Rhea couldn’t stay away from the game and started coaching the Hurricanes. Playing organized football long seemed out of reach for Rhea - until, at 35 years old, she tried out and made the semi-pro Chicago Force. “Use it as fuel to introduce yourself, and when you tackle them, say, ‘Yeah, that’s me.’” Credit: Danny Creed Konesha Rhea, affectionately known as “Coach K,” poses for a picture with her football team at DuSable. I tell them don’t give up, even though you have a target on your chest because you’re a girl in this sport,” Rhea said. “It means I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing. Three girls have now signed up to play for DuSable this year, Rhea said. It’s Mayfield’s first year as a high school coach, while Rhea is starting her second - after she broke the glass ceiling last season as the first Black female head football coach in Chicago Public League history. Fenger’s football team had been defunct since the pandemic, but Mayfield was up to the challenge. Mayfield was working security at Fenger when kids at the school found out she coached youth football, and they “kept asking me to come coach, so they could have their homecoming game,” she said. “So I went over to her, told her I was the head coach and she was just as loud as I am. ![]() “You don’t see a lot of women in youth football yet, passionate about the sport and screaming all the things that make sense,” Rhea said. Rhea approached Mayfield after the game and told her to keep coaching. ![]() Mayfield had taken up coaching her son’s peewee team, “just because we didn’t understand what his coaches were asking him to do,” she said. That’s when she met Mayfield, a mom on the sidelines who was louder than most. She fell in love with the game even as she was unable to find teams to play at organized levels.īut Rhea got the chance to coach the Bridgeport Hurricanes, a youth football team, in 2013. Rhea grew up just outside of Chicago “playing sandlot football, the only sport where you can hit and not get in trouble,” she said. “It had to be her, and it had to me,” Mayfield said. The coaches’ journeys in Chicago youth football have long been intertwined, and the game will be “two sisters finally crossing paths again,” Mayfield said. It’s showing girls that they can do anything.” “For all my years in football, this means everything to me. “Up until game time on Thursday, Jousecelyn and I always root for each other,” Rhea said. The coaches can’t wait to see each other on opposing sidelines. The two will bring their teams to Gately Stadium, 810 E. Jousecelyn Mayfield calls the shots for Christian Fenger High School. Konesha Rhea is in her second season as the head football coach for DuSable High School. PULLMAN - A Chicago high school football game Thursday will be the first in Illinois history between two Black female head coaches. ![]()
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