My boss Jake forwarded this email to me today along with the comment “something like this could only happen in high school.” Because I am a female he thought I might offer a better perspective on it, and I hope he’s right. He’s right about one thing for sure, only in high school could something like this happen…but there is more to that… I’m a lot older than my boss so many things come to mind. First not only could this not happen anywhere else but high school, but from my perspective, when I was in high school girls weren’t even allowed to play football, or soccer for that matter! It’s amazing to me how much girl’s sports have advanced since I graduated from high school in the mid 80’s. There were a few instances of girls playing football prior to Title IX in the early 70’s but those were few and far between. In fact even in the 70’s girls faced challenges trying to play football for their high school team. So jump ahead to 2011 and Brianna Amat not only becomes the homecoming queen, but the first female player to play on the Pinckney High School’s varsity team in Michigan. It makes me glad for my two daughters, ages 14 and 9. My 4th grade daughter can outrun any 5th or 6th grade boy on her schools cross country team and my older daughter can out swim most of her male teammates. I hopeful that someday they will be given the same opportunity that Brianna had to compete against athletes of similar ability, not just gender. But for now both swimming and cross country are divided by gender. Not exactly what my boss had in mind maybe..but…
Back to my Jake’s original point: “something like this could only happen in high school” and therein lies the beauty of high school sports. Anything can happen.
PINCKNEY, Mich. – A Michigan girl is wowing classmates on and off the field at her high school.
Brianna Amat, the first female to play on Pinckney High School's varsity football team, kicked a 31-yard game-winning field goal on Friday and was crowned homecoming queen during the game, MyFOXDetroit.com reports.
Amat was already a soccer star at Pinckney High. She told her soccer coach she wanted to kick footballs as well. Head football coach Dan Burholder was impressed, so he put her on the team. Friday night was Amat's biggest game against Grand Blanc, who was ranked No. 7 in the state.
Amat got a note at halftime telling her to come out of the locker room. To her surprise, she was crowned homecoming queen during the game.
With five minutes to play in the third quarter, facing a fourth and goal, Burkholder called Amat to attempt a 31-yard field goal -- a career-best distance. Amat made the kick, sending Pinckney to a 9-7 win over Grand Blanc. The crowd went nuts, but Amat says she only heard silence because she was so focused on the game. Amat plans to attend Western Michigan University and major in business advertising.
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