THE GIRLS GET IN THE GAME
From Pop Warner to Bowl Games, Girls are Making Big Hits
by: Mitchell Lavnick
When Katie Hnida lined up for an extra point attempt in December's Las Vegas Bowl, the New Mexico Lobo field goal kicker made history as the first woman to play in a Division I-A college game. Her try was blocked, but that didn't take away from her achievement.
“My coach told me right before the game that I was going to get a chance to kick,” she says. “It was unreal for me. I have never thought about making history. For me, this is just what I do. I'm a kicker.”
Hnida isn't the only female football player to make some noise this year. In December, at the Pop Warner Super Bowl in Orlando, there were a number of female players, including 14-year-olds Nichole Libretto and Emily Bissel, who faced off against each other in the first round of the Division II midget championship playoffs.
Libretto's Cape Youth Hurricanes (Florida) beat Bissel's Beverly Panthers (Massachusetts) 16-7, and went on to win the championship. Libretto, a nosetackle and center who's played for three years, isn't afraid to mix it up with the boys. “She has put some good hits on me in practice, a couple of bruises,” says teammate Jimmy Markovits.
“I have always been into rough sports,” Libretto says. “I played a lot of sports when I was younger, and my brother started playing four years ago. I begged my parents to let me play, and they were like, 'no you wouldn't like it. It's too rough.' So my dad was like, 'OK, next year if you still want to play, I'll let you.' He didn't think I would make it through conditioning, but I made it through it. He was like, 'She won't make it through the first week of pads.' And I made it through it. And now this is my third year playing.” It was also Libretto's last year. “I figure this is a good year to retire on, since we made it all the way [to the championship],” she says.
This article was reprinted with permission courtesy of Kickoff Magazine.