A woman’s touch from Fingers

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana -- When Southern football players got a first look at their new strength and conditioning coach this spring, most opinions ranged from doubtful to incredulous. They’d heard Corliss Fingers might be joining the team, but now it was real.

The person in charge of getting them physically ready for another season and helping them chase the dream of a pro career would be … a she?

It is the 500-pound barbell in the room, and Fingers likes to address it early. “Yes, I’m a female. We’ll get over that in about 10 minutes, and we’ll move on,” she said.

That’s about how long it took Fingers to make it clear that there would be no sugar and spice in her weight room. She hadn’t officially begun her new job at Southern; the day was supposed to be spent shadowing coach Stump Mitchell, to watch his players work out. Just a nice, easy visit.

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