Growing up, I was always very close with my dad doing all of the things he loved to do, together. I used to go on motorcycle rides, I was a competitive weight lifter, and was always shown that just because I had a pink fairy room, did not mean I couldn’t get my hands dirty in the garage or do typically male gendered activities.
When I was in highschool, I decided I wanted to play a sport in ninth grade. I had watched from afar how intense the football team practiced, how much they ran at the end of a long day and how hard they worked. I wanted to work that hard, so I joined the team. The coach was extremely sceptical about it so he had called my mom to talk to her about it and she backed me up by saying- “if she wants to do it, I don’t see why not.” There was immediate buzz around the school about my recent decision, and I did not understand why. I didn’t see any reason why this was so unheard of, or why there weren’t any girls who also wanted to play. I was immediately asked by so many girls in my class if I was just playing to get close to the boys, or wondering why I was playing. I didn’t know, I just knew I loved it.
While practicing drills, the boys on my team never wanted to knock me over, or hit me as hard as they would each other. I vividly remember my coach pulling my opponent during the drill aside, and telling him “She is playing because she wants to be a football player, you need to treat her the way you would any other boy on this field.” My opponent walked back to his spot, the whistle blew, and he hit me so hard I caught air, throwing me to the ground. It wasn’t painless, however it was the first time on that field it felt like the team recognized I was there to work just as hard as them when I got right back up and took my place for the next drill.
I was also doing competitive all-star cheerleading at the same time, leaving football, and heading to the gym. I ended up playing on my high school football team for 4 years, and receiving with only a few other boys my name on the fourth year player plaque that hangs at the school. To this day I do not know what brought me to fight that very prominent gender norm at my school, but I am so proud of myself for doing it.
One Comment
Josh
Hello Christa! Very good story and I want to start by telling you how awesome that is straying away from the crowd and doing something you love no matter what people would say or do. Everyone should do what they love and believe in no matter what people think or say. People are equal and girls deserve more recognition in sport and as the years go by it is getting better and better, and article I remember looking into about football, Sarah Fuller the first female to play in a power 5 football game, these types of things are very inspirational to see and hopefully can become the norm.