I play football and I wanna KEEP playing football

For almost all of my life I hated football. I thought it was dumb and it was just a bunch of rude jocks tackling each other (tv you did not help prove me wrong), but last year I began to like it.

I’m a pretty athletic girl and I’ll play sports any chance I get. There was nothing else to do one day so I decided I would play football. There were two other girls who helped me feel comfortable and I had a really good time but it was only touch football because we’re not allowed to tackle during lunch.

At my school in 7th and 8th grade you’re required to do a sport for each season. The fall choices were cross country, football, field hockey and soccer and I wanted to do football.

When I told some of the guys this, they seriously thought it wasn’t allowed (there were two girls doing wrestling so I didn’t really get their logic). One said if I was to get a spot, it would be kicker, and the other wanted me to see a therapist! So I ended up playing flag almost everyday and signed up for the after school program. I even practiced at home a little (a lot of homework equals no free time).

It took a little while but I convinced my parents to let me play. Now I fill in for offensive guard, offensive tackle and mainly do defensive tackle. I’m definitely not the best but I don’t suck either. I had a great time playing and I don’t wanna quit but my dad said I have to either stop at 8th grade, gain 40 pounds of muscle or get really fast. Anyone know any workout that could help me out with this?

I’ve got until the end of next school year and I REALLY wanna play in varsity. I’m kinda going for the forty pounds because I want to keep playing line. The guys are cool now and they’ve helped me out a lot. They’re pretty close to the best team I could hope for and they’re not discriminative anymore. Please help. I’ll try my best by myself, but how am I supposed to gain forty pounds of muscle by the beginning of 9th grade?