04/18/24
August 13, 2019
SportsFilter: The Tuesday Huddle:
A place to discuss the sports stories that aren't making news, share links that aren't quite front-page material, and diagram plays on your hand. Remember to count to five Mississippi before commenting in anger.
That's great. Hope she has a great season (which must be right around the corner).
I remember when I expressed interest in kicking in HS back in the Mesozoic Era. I had been on the varsity soccer team, but the squad was talent laden and over rostered and PT was scant.
The football coach liked what I could do but he was old school and would not support the silly notion of having a kicking "specialist". Everyone on the team had to try out for a field position. Not with the goal of being a starter, you just had to be rostered as an "actual" player with a "real" position. He wanted to roster me as a DB. That was a good place to hide weaker players, since the defensive backfield typically saw less of the ball. There were very few live armed QB's that could stretch out a defense.
I had never played football; I was clueless. It didn't work out. Just as well. In those days, most HS plays were run-based, so as a DB, your golden opportunity to gain glory was to come running up so you could collide head on with a fullback (remember those?) who was on the verge of getting past the D line and reaching the linebacker level.
You can imagine what would happen in practice if a kicker got put in on D for a few plays and suddenly found the action coming right at them. A little additional contact, no extra charge, just so you got a feel for what it was like to be one of the real players.
The game balls were awful and were hard to control in the kicking game and they didn't care, because if it's just rock toting Barney or Fred hitting the hole 90% of the time, you don't need a well maintained football for that. Who cares what the French poodle kickers think?
posted by beaverboard at 04:51 PM on August 13, 2019
my senior manager's daughter is her high school football team's kicker
What's a girl doing on the football team? It's the real helmet and pads,knock 'em on their ass football, not that bunch of Europeans that fall down if you look at them. Kicking? The only kicking a girl should do is in the chorus line in the school play.
There, now I have preempted all of those who might not favor female involvement in a predominantly male contact sport. If anyone else wants to say something like that, he or she can come talk to me. It's a great idea for someone qualified to do a job to be able to do it. Congratulations to the young lady; may her season go well.
I used to work with a guy who coached Pop Warner football back in the neanderthal era. He had 2 or 3 girls try out for his team. His ploy was to be very cordial and welcoming and put them at center at their first practice. He claimed that none of them lasted very long after the quarterback put his hand in position to take the snap. One could get away with things back then.
posted by Howard_T at 05:54 PM on August 13, 2019
Apparently she's been playing football with the boys since middle school and she was bigger than them back in the day. She was told to kick the ball (on kick offs) and run off the field. After her first day of practice, she came home and told her brothers that. They said, "no, you are the last line of defense on kick offs, so you stay on the field and tackle the returner if they get past everyone else." She did and she beat the snot out of the boys that did break free. However, all of the boys have grown up to be bigger than her now, but she stays on the field and acts like an NFL kicker if the returner makes their way to her. She kind of steps aside a bit and pushes. She loves doing the kicking for her team, though. She's a junior in HS, so she's got another year of this.
posted by NoMich at 06:35 PM on August 13, 2019
To break the silence here:
TIL that my senior manager's daughter is her high school football team's kicker. Rolesville High School, which is about 30 minutes north of Raleigh