Jessica won’t let anything stop her from playing football

I started playing football because my brother did. I look up to him for everything and I wanted to be just like him. In 7th grade I signed up for the football team at my school. The first meeting that we had was during our last hour of school in the gymnasium. I walked up to the double doors, and I remember the superintendent saying to me, before I walked in, “I better see you out there in the fall.”

What a surprise! She didn’t think I was serious. She probably thought I was doing it just to get out of class. Which, now that I think of it, isn’t a bad idea. Haha!

The coach was fine with the whole idea of having a girl on the team. The kids on the team were the ones that had a problem with it. They didn’t know how to react, so they started picking on me. Calling me names and stuff like that. You know the saying “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me”? …Well that’s a lie. Words hurt, sometimes even worse than sticks and stones.

Anyways, practice was the worst. I was always last to be picked for any activity. And partner drills? Ha! Don’t get me started… Who wants to be partners with a girl? No one, that’s who. I remember this one day during practice, we were playing a game called “Bull in the ring”. It’s where the team makes a circle around two people and if one person steps out of the ring or get’s tackled to the ground, they lose.

Well, what do you know? The coach picks me and one of the biggest kids on the team. I was so excited because I was waiting to get in the whole time. So, I got in the middle with him. “Go!” says the coach, so I charge and ram him as hard as I could. Not a budge…so I try a different technique and I grab onto his chest plate and start running in place. He takes a few steps back, then does the same to me.

Now the party starts. My back side is inching closer to the edge of the ring, so I quickly turn around him and push him out. I won! Did I mention it was his birthday? Haha!

Whoots and hollers came from the croud. Most of them saying, “You just got beat by a girl!”. It irks me when people say that because I think to myself “What? Some of you guys couldn’t have even done that, so what’s it got to do with being a girl?”

I started to notice a change in how they treated me after that. A lot of them still thought that football was only for boys, but they had more respect for me.

I moved that summer and was going to start football my eighth grade year at a different school, but they said that I moved too late in the season. That may be true, but I think that part of the reason had to do with me being a girl, and again I don’t think that they thought I was serious about it.

9th grade year. High school. Time to step it up a notch.

I missed the first meeting we had on purpose because they called over the loud speaker, “Any ninth grade BOY interested in playing football next year, please report to the cafeteria after school. Thank you.” I know it doesn’t seem like that big of a deal right now, but at the time it really pissed me off. Pardon my French :)

I went to the next meeting, though. I’m glad that I was actually friends with two of the guys there because at least I wouldn’t feel so left out.

In this school there was a weight room. I was never in one of them until then. There were still similarities between That year and seventh grade year though. Like the fact that no one would spot me because I was a girl. Part of the reason they wouldn’t spot me was because the didn’t know how. It’s different because I have boobs. Haha!

It sucked because there always seemed to be an odd number of people in the weight room, so I would always have to just join a group. I decided to always join my two friends after that, but I could tell that they didn’t care to have me in their group because it made them look like losers. Oh well…

10th grade year was kinda tough because I still didn’t quite fit in….I still don’t.

Varsity baby! Practice starts soon. Wish me luck! :D