Category: MVP & ROOKIES

There’s one girl playing tackle football in Oregon City, and she’s good

At the start of every football season, Sarah Clasen has the same conversation with parents in the stands. “Is that your daughter playing?” “Yes.” “I didn’t know girls could play.” They can — and her daughter, Sophia, does. Quite well, in fact. Sophia, 12, just finished her fifth year of tackle football. For all five […]

‘Just go do it’: Alicia Dickerson hopes to encourage other girls through football

POWHATAN, Va. (WWBT) – Many teams in the region are looking to make history and win their first championship ring while others are looking to repeat, but Powhatan High School is making even more history with their second ever female player. Alicia Dickerson is an offensive guard and a defensive lineman for Powhatan’s JV football […]

Will Carli Lloyd open the door for the NFL’s first female player?

Carli Lloyd’s well-publicized visit with the Philadelphia Eagles wasn’t her first appearance at an NFL training camp, but this one ended with a Hall of Fame executive advising teams to give her a tryout. The footage of Lloyd, a two-time Fifa player of the year, booting 55-yard field goals reignited the discussion of whether a woman will […]

Girls just want to have fun

Another young lady will be on the gridiron this year in DeKalb County. Seventh grader Katie Retzlaff will suit up for Druid Hills Middle School as wide receiver. Retzlaff, 12, said this is the first time she has ever played tackle football. She played flag football when she was 7 years old. “I just like […]

How Jen Welter’s life has changed a year after making history

Fifty-three weeks ago, Jen Welter was teaching aerobics and running boot camps in Dallas while coaching linebackers and special teams for a men’s professional football league. She was working at both in relative anonymity. On Thursday, the one-year anniversary of Welter’s introduction to the world as a training camp intern for the Arizona Cardinals — the first […]

NY Jets’ first female coach on surviving rape and seeking to inspire

When Collette V. Smith was 18, she had just moved from New York City to Alabama to attend Tuskegee University. Her mother’s family lived in nearby Georgia and she would often visit on weekends for home-cooked meals and familiar company. During one such visit, Smith, who later made history in 2017 as the first woman […]

Allison Cahill ’03 Raises the Bar for Success, Longevity in Women’s Football

Allison Cahill ’03 earned her place in the record books in four years with the Princeton women’s basketball team, scoring more than 1,000 points as one of the best 3-point shooters in program history. But Cahill’s athletic career since graduation has been even more remarkable: After finishing her degree in history, she took up tackle […]

Versatile athlete and alum Emily Beinecke is tackling a new challenge.

When the Tufts University softball team won the first of three straight NCAA championships in 2013, Emily Beinecke, A13, batted fourth and played shortstop for the Jumbos. These days, she’s still helping her team win championships, albeit in a much different sport. Beinecke is now a leading receiver for the Boston Renegades, a tackle football team […]

Football Player Wants more Women to Join the Huddle

A women’s semi-professional football player from the Poconos is hoping her story to victory will interest more girls to join the team. By day, Amanda Avvento teaches in the East Stroudsburg Area School district. But in her spare time, she plays center for the Philadelphia Phantomz, a semi-professional women’s football team. “We are part of the […]

Women Making History: Meet teen football game-changer Sam Gordon

NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — At nine-years-old, Sam Gordon gained national attention with a video of her dominating her male teammates on the football field. Seven years later, she was featured as the only female to catch the football during the Super Bowl “NFL 100” commercial. “You know everything about it (filming the commercial) was super […]

How a Female Sportswriter Went From Covering to Coaching Football

Marjorie Herrera Lewis discovered the story of her sportswriting career in her allergist’s office. The former Star-Telegram and Dallas Morning News writer had covered the Dallas Cowboys beat, breaking stories on contracts and trades during the Tom Landry years. But it wasn’t until she showed up for a pinprick test at her doctor’s office in Bedford that she found […]

Seekonk High co-captain Garabian finds success on the football field

It will be on the soil at Robert T. Roy Field on the campus of Dighton-Rehoboth Regional High School that Cammy Garabian will play her final football game on Thanksgiving Day. Donning the blue and gray of Seekonk High School, the nationally renowned track star will place an exclamation mark on four seasons of representing […]

Cheerleader turned defensive back hopes to play football at Franklin College

FRANKLIN, Ind. — She’s on the field throwing passes, helping the defensive backs run different routes. She’s carrying around cards, getting the scout offense ready for the defense. On the clipboard, she looks at the script for practice, where she needs to go next. Hope Nelson is a freshman student football coach for Franklin College. […]

Kicking their way to history: West Branch duo making impact on football team

BELOIT, Ohio (WYTV) – It’s been a busy fall for two West Branch girls soccer players. Gillian Koneval and Olivia McLean are both senior captains on the pitch. They’ve combined for 25 goals this season, on a team that’s undefeated through 12 games. Plus, the duo made history on the football field this season. “[Soccer […]

Watch for Her on the NFL Sidelines

Jennifer King knows she has to study twice as hard. Even before she became the Carolina Panthers’ first female coaching intern, she pored over playbooks and delved into areas of football strategy she felt were a weakness. Mind you, this was on top of her highly successful day job as head coach of the women’s basketball team […]

Georgetown’s Sheldon seeking football championship

Competing for a national championship is difficult enough. Doing it in a sport you didn’t pick up until adulthood is even more challenging. That’s the task Sue Sheldon has faced, and will again on Saturday as the Boston Renegades seek a Women’s Football Alliance title. “We’ve accomplished what we wanted, which is getting back to […]

Blitz Champz Wants To Score a Touchdown with Sporty Black Girl Nerds

Adrienne Smith proves that Black Girl Nerds also come in elite athlete edition. The Boston Renegades receiver is an entrepreneur, educator, scholar, actor and creator of Blitz Champz, a football-themed card game for ages 7 and up. The fun, fast-paced game features 100 vibrantly illustrated playing cards that depict a diverse lineup of male and female […]

Football: “The Gridiron Girls”

Fans at Palestine Junior High football games can’t help but notice the long ponytails that two of the players are sporting below their helmets. While eighth-grader Stephanie Molina and Jade-Lynn Laurent, a seventh-grader, garner second glances in their Wildcat football uniforms, when they take the field these girls ask for no special treatment: They are […]

Female linebacker makes history for Boca Raton in victory

In the last minute of Boca Raton’s 14-6 win over Spanish River Monday night, coach Eric Davis sent his newest player into the game. Her name is Hannah Pratt. He put the senior in to play linebacker and try to hold the Sharks and secure the win. Spanish River completed a pass to Sam Burton […]

Newark girls tackle football and one of them makes histor

Deanna Guzman was looking to have a memorable senior year at Newark Collegiate Academy. No girl had ever made the school’s football team. One tried two years in row, but couldn’t cut it. “I’ve gotta leave my print,” Deanna said. She told this to her mother, Alashia Brown, meaning she had to leave her mark […]

Meet Tess, Medford High’s only female football player

Medford Tech senior Tess Mauro just joined the varsity football team as the only female player. Though Tess Mauro always loved football, no one ever asked her if she wanted to play the sport herself. Now a senior at Medford Vocational Technical High School, Mauro has decided to join the varsity football team at Medford […]

Famed Utah teen sues, pursues girls high school football

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Five years after Sam Gordon’s video of her football talents playing against boys won her an invitation to see the Super Bowl, she is a high school freshman and among those claiming three Utah school districts and the Utah High School Activities Association have not done enough to provide girls […]

Opelousas pediatrician repeats as All-American player

What’s a 49-year-old pediatrician doing playing football in a league where women hit and tackle just like the men? She’s having the time of her life and becoming an eight-time All-American. Dr. Mia Ben earned top honors as a defensive end for the Acadiana Zydeco, a team in the Women’s Football Alliance. Since 2009, the […]

Bills hire female British football player Phoebe Schecter as coaching intern

The Buffalo Bills tapped a British football player and coach as one their interns for training camp. The hiring of Phoebe Schecter, a member of the women’s Great Britain National Tackle Football team, comes after the Bills made Kathryn Smith the first female full-time assistant coach in January 2016. Smith was not retained after the Bills fired […]

Lifelong Jets fan Collette Smith hired as team’s first female coach

Collette Smith has been a Jets fan her entire life. Now, she will be one of the team’s coaches. The Jets will name Smith, 44, as the first woman to work on the coaching staff, according to the New York Daily News. She will be a preseason intern working with New York’s defensive backs during training […]

As the story of girl football player, ‘Tight End’ drops the ball

Here’s a true story: At age 14, Tami Maida earned a roster spot on her high school football team in Oregon. She played quarterback and took hits — so many that she later told a local newspaper she could recall only two plays that season when she didn’t take a hit. That was in 1981. Her story […]

Female kicker makes college football history with scholarship

Becca Longo isn’t the first woman to play football. But the senior at Basha High School in Chandler, Arizona, made history when she signed a letter of intent to play football at Adams State University, an NCAA Division II school in Alamosa, Colorado. It’s believed that Longo, 18, is the first female to earn a […]

Playing football like a girl

Wantagh, Seaford and Levittown residents might have noticed the brown ponytail sticking out of a Salk Middle School seventh-grade football player’s white helmet while cheering on the Seahawks this fall. That player was Gia Stamatelo — a 13-year-old girl who said that she is never afraid to line up alongside local boys on the gridiron. […]

Katie Hnida Shares Her Story of Making Football History and Surviving Rape

This story is part of Teen Vogue’s Girls in the Game series with Jessica Luther, which examines the role that gender plays in football today. Katie Hnida didn’t mean to get into football. Back then, she was a 13-year-old youth soccer player with strong legs and a powerful kick. She got her first taste of the game […]

Female HS football player from Compton selected for all-star game

A senior at Compton’s Centennial High School is having quite a year: all-star in football, class president, 4.3 GPA. And Eriana Pula is also the only girl selected to play in an upcoming all-star game. The 5-foot-10, 250-pound offensive guard and defensive line tackle was recently selected to play in the California Classic all-star game […]

Terrell’s Cuff first female named GISA All-State football

Terrell Academy’s 2016 football season is one that won’t soon be forgotten. The Eagles reached the state semifinals, and just had five players named to the all-state team, including one who is making history. Sophomore kicker Jenna Cuff has been named to the GISA Class AA All-State team. She is the first female to ever […]

Female football player endured a lot, learned more

It was never Kelly McKenna’s intent to make a statement, never her intent to launch a salvo in the gender wars. She just loved football. And so, a few years after a middle school gym coach scoffed at the notion of a girl putting on pads and helmet and mixing it up with the boys, […]

Girls on the Gridiron: Area scholastic athletes blaze football trail

Coryne DeMattio has heard her opponents’ whispers. The 11 boys on the other side of the field can see the long locks of brunette hair, twisted in pigtails and hanging out of her blue and black Millbrook High School football team helmet, as she takes her place on the defensive line. Rosalind Bendell has received […]

2 girls take on high school football at Eisenhower

In full football gear, Jade Watson and Kennedy Davis don’t look a whole lot different than their 32 Eisenhower High School teammates out on the field. But Watson and Davis, both freshmen, are the first-ever female football players to suit up and play an entire season in head freshman coach Jeremy Rodrigues’ 10 years as […]

Topeka varsity football team features two women

The Topeka Trojans visited Wichita Northwest Friday night. Even through the last-second madness, two players stood out among the crowd. After three years starting for the Trojans, senior placekicker Ruth Fiander said she still gets looks when she takes the field. “When we go here, the cheerleaders were walking around the track and they gave […]

Tackling the gender divide

Twelve-year-old Paxten Jensen doesn’t care that she is the first girl to play junior high football for Tri-State. She doesn’t care that football is a game dominated by boys, especially at the junior high level, a time when girls venture into volleyball and leave this field behind. All she truly cared about on a recent […]

Jen’s Moments of Change: The First Ripple

I still remember when I found out I would represent my country in the inaugural IFAF Women’s World Championship. Forty-five of the top women from around the United States would abandon their individual team colors to represent the Red, White and Blue. We had this “A League of Their Own” feel. We were the pioneers. […]

Star black female kicker mocked in racist Instagram post

A star placekicker for a Michigan high school football team was mocked on social media for her race, though the troubling Instagram post has since been removed. Ashton Brooks is a senior placekicker for the Dow football team in Midland, Mich. The Chargers have surged to an 8-1 start thanks in no small part to […]

GIQ Chalk Talk with Noela Moreno

The GIQ Chalk Talk series is a living archive that highlights the accomplishments and struggles of women and girls who are blazing trails in the sport of American football. This episode features 16 year-old right guard, Noela Moreno, who opens up about the consistent sexism and discrimination she experiences from her football coaches and opponents. The interview […]

Tega Cay trio a sight on the gridiron

That football team you half recall, the one with a girl lost deep down the roster? The seventh string punter, maybe? It isn’t Gold Hill Middle School. The Bulldogs have three girls. And don’t dare ask about special teams. The only thing they’re looking to kick is a little opponent hind end. “We all love […]

GIQ Chalk Talk with Cammy Fields

The GIQ Chalk Talk series is a living archive that highlights the accomplishments and struggles of women and girls who are blazing trails in the sport of American football. This episode features 16 year-old running back, Cammy Fields, who is a dominant force in the back field as well as on defense when she plays corner. The […]

‘We can do this too:’ Five area girls take on varsity football

A law passed in 1973 would eventually change the lives of current high school girls born near the turn of this century. That law made it OK for girls to play with boys on high school athletic teams in the state of California. In 1973, two girls — Diane Thompson (Live Oak) and Toni Ihler […]

Raytown middle school girl gets tough on the football field

The gender barrier is being broken at one school in the metro. One middle school football player is proving she’s strong enough to play football against the guys, in addition to other high impact sports. At only 5 foot 3 inches, Elizia Garcia stands ten feet tall when she plays football. When the 14-year-old told […]

GIQ Chalk Talk with Evonnie Ramos

The GIQ Chalk Talk series is a living archive that highlights the accomplishments and struggles of women and girls who are blazing trails in the sport of American football. This episode features 16 year-old linewoman, Evonnie Ramos, who is making her presence felt as both left guard and nose guard on her high school team. The interview […]

Pennsylvania high school kicker proves girls can hit hard, too

Kelly Macnamara is the first girl to play for the North Penn High School football team, so she knows a thing or two about having to prove herself. And the junior kicker even will lower that shoulder if she has to. That’s a very good hit on a tough play. Sure, the return went for […]

Zanesville’s female football players defying stereotypes

Society says girls aren’t supposed to play football. It’s too rough, they say. And besides, doesn’t the team need cheerleaders? Those thoughts apply at many places, even in a football-rabid state like Ohio, where a passion for football knows no gender bounds. It doesn’t apply at Zanesville Middle School, however, where gridiron equality is the […]

GIQ Chalk Talk with Brooke Liebsch

The GIQ Chalk Talk series is a living archive that highlights the accomplishments and struggles of women and girls who are blazing trails in the sport of American football. This episode features 15 year-old quarterback, Brooke Liebsch, who is making huge strides as a leader on her team. The interview is conducted by GIQ Correspondent, Tori Vonder […]

Female kicker denied chance to play in football game because she’s a gir

Charlotte Albright was in uniform ready to go, but she had nowhere to play last week. Albright, a backup kicker for the Summit middle school football team, was denied entry into a game between Summit and North Raleigh Christian Academy because she’s a girl. Her mother, Carolyn Albright, took to social media by posting on […]

Bonnyville girls breaking barriers on the football field

Football has always been known as a “man’s game” but five local girls are changing that stereotype. Payge Satek, Ariana Church, Alese Sartain, Cassie Christians and Sera Barker-House have decided to break the barrier and take on the boys. These five girls play for the Bonnyville Bandits bantam football team. “Coaching them is not hard, […]

History maker: Hannah Baughman breaks barrier for Louisville football

At the 30-minute mark of a recent soccer game against Marlington, Louisville junior Hannah Baughman got a clear look at the goal, took a shot and … airmailed it through the uprights She knew immediately what was coming. “They were like, ‘wrong sport’ and ‘this isn’t football,’” she said. “I get it all the time.” […]

Football: Four middle school girls are kicking stereotypes

Cheerleading has been a tad different this year for South Forsyth Middle School’s Avery Wyckoff. That’s because at football games in recent weeks she’s not only cheered on the Eagles team, but she’s kept a close eye on the player wearing No. 15 on game days. That is, after all, one of her closest friends—fellow […]

Lumberton’s Ard breaking down barriers as first female kicker

After missing her sophomore soccer season because of a knee injury, Alexis Ard was determined to finish her prep career at Lumberton High School with no regrets. So she decided to make history ahead of her senior year, joining the football team to become the first female placekicker to suit up for the Pirates. Ard […]

Florida’s first woman football coach: Respect teammates and respect women

When she played the role of the ill-tempered Bernice on the docudrama ‘South Beach Tow’, Lakatriona Brunson wasn’t afraid to exchange body blows with the angry people whose cars she towed. These days, Brunson still isn’t scared to get mean or nasty if she has to. But the personality she played on TV seems far […]

Cougars football team welcomes female athlete

We hear the phrase “you hit like a girl” fairly often. But what if that girl can knock you flat on your back? Girls playing high school football isn’t as uncommon as you think, but one local girl wants to make sure she isn’t the last. “My mom, she’s like “Alright go ahead and play […]

Get to know Michelle Roque, Florida State’s football phenom

Florida State’s Michelle Roque first came into the national consciousness in 2014 when her football highlight reel went viral, and again a year later when SportsCenter featured her second video. Now she’s back, but with a new twist—or kick, should I say. This year’s reel showcases her catching and Roberto Aguayo-like kicking skills. Oh, and not to […]

The First Female NFL Coach Is Proud To ‘Play Like A Girl’

The phrase “play like a girl” shouldn’t be seen as an insult, according to Jen Welter, who is the first woman to hold a coaching position in the NFL. Welter played professional women’s football and now works as a sports psychologist, but she made history during her preseason coaching internship with the Arizona Cardinals in 2015. She’s also […]

Girl power: Alcoa Peewee’s welcomes first female player

It’s almost football time in Tennessee, and in Blount County, a team to watch is coach Tyrone Haley’s Alcoa Tornadoes Peewee Football Team for 9- and 10-year-old players. Pay particular attention to the offensive and defensive lines — you’ll see history being made as 10-year-old Jasmine Click takes the field as a starter for the […]

Gender no issue for Gray, LC football

If Jeanette Gray is the first woman on a high school football coaching staff in the Duneland Athletic Conference, great. “That’s pretty cool,” she said. But that’s not why the former Valparaiso high school and university basketball star is doing it. “I love to coach, I love football and I love working with kids,” Gray […]

American footballer in London urges women to join in and tackle stereotypes

A female American football player from London is calling on women to try out her sport, insisting gridiron is “not just for boys”. Lucie Stewart, 29, said she had been told the game “wasn’t for girls” — but hoped she was proof that women of all shapes and sizes could get involved. Stewart plays for London Warriors […]

Jen Welter: Huddling for a Q & A with the NFL’s first female coach

Watching pint-sized youngsters playing at private academies in Florida can give one the feeling of looking through the wrong end of a pair of binoculars. Is anyone too young to play tennis? It appears not. Apparently, though, you can be too small to have a big future in the game. A rising tennis hopeful in […]

Mount Vernon Local Thrives in Women’s Professional Football

Playing the game of football professionally is something not many people get the opportunity to do. However, one player in particular that’s making a push for women’s football, is Mount Vernon local Callie Brownson. In this case, professional women’s football is alive in the D.C. area, as the D.C. Divas women’s professional football team is […]

For the love of the game: Alumna to make NFL coaching debut

“Oh, wow, you play football?” the young woman asked Katie Sowers, who was waiting to have her photo taken for this story in the locker room also being used by the girl’s high school basketball team that was warming up for upcoming tipoff. “I would love to play football!” “You can!” Sowers encouraged. “How old […]

For fitness and strategy, tech scores with this wide receiver

Women don’t just watch football, they play it. Take Adrienne Smith, a wide receiver for the Boston Renegades, a women’s semiprofessional team. Smith averages 24 yards per catch and has scored a touchdown in almost every game this month. Like many of the Renegades, she keeps her income flowing with a day job. Smith has […]

For fitness and strategy, tech scores with this wide receiver

Women don’t just watch football, they play it. Take Adrienne Smith, a wide receiver for the Boston Renegades, a women’s semiprofessional team. Smith averages 24 yards per catch and has scored a touchdown in almost every game this month. Like many of the Renegades, she keeps her income flowing with a day job. Smith has […]

Jen Welter meets President Obama, who then quotes her in a speech

The picture was worth the wait. More than six weeks after meeting President Barack Obama at the White House during a celebration of Women’s History Month, Jen Welter received the photo of her and the president. And it went straight to her Instagram account. When Welter met Obama, he stood in front of the former Arizona […]

‘There are no limits for girls,’ NFL’s first female coach says

Dr. Jen Welter is only 5-foot-2, but she stands very tall as a force for women. Last year, Welter made history by becoming the first female coach in the National Football League, hired by the Arizona Cardinals as a preseason intern to work with the team’s inside linebackers. The NFL opportunity came about after Welter […]