'Breath of fresh air': How Jazmin Gamble plans to rebuild Hawthorne High football
The Bakersfield native is an all-star player in a women's professional league with experience in developing athletes at all levels. Now the Cougars get her expertise.
New Hawthorne High football coach Jazmin Gamble poses for a photo on the field while holding a football. (Steve Galluzzo / For The Times) Football can teach many life lessons and no one knows that better than Jazmin Gamble, the new varsity head coach at Hawthorne High. As a woman in a male-dominated profession one could define her as a trailblazer — and that would be accurate — but while she acknowledges the historical significance of what she is doing, Gamble is not letting it distract her from the task at hand — turning around a program that has fallen on hard times.
“It’s less about proving a point and more about giving all these boys a better experience,” Gamble said. “I’m not downplaying the impact of it, rather I want to leverage the attention in a way that benefits the players and opens doors for them. I’m elated and honored that the district saw my vision and said ‘this girl can do that.
’ I have to ask myself how I can use this opportunity to spotlight our team. ” Gamble, who turns 36 in June, is a running back and linebacker for the Los Angeles Legends in the Women’s National Football Conference, a full-contact professional league consisting of 16 franchises across the United States. Gamble was selected Defensive Player of the Year in 2024 and Offensive Player of the Year in 2025 when she gained a league-leading 549 yards rushing (averaging 11.
9 yards per carry) while scoring three touchdowns. “I tore my ACL my first season and was on injured reserve but I came back in 2022 and have been playing ever since,” she said. “We made the playoffs last season but lost in the first round.
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