Girl Football Player Sits For Team’s Sake
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By DERON SNYDER
Females who play tackle football against males are rare and usually found at a particular position: kicker. That keeps them from virtually all contact, but it doesn’t ensure their acceptance or safety, as evidenced by the ordeal of Katia Hnida, who in 2003 became the first female to score in an NCAA football game.
Eighth-grader Mina Johnson plays positions that are much more physically demanding — nose tackle, guard and linebacker — for Virginia’s Southampton Academy junior varsity, but she doesn’t worry about acceptance from her teammates. The same, however, isn’t true for North Carolina’s Lasker Northeast Academy, which threatened to forfeit last week if Johnson played.
So she decided to sit out for her team’s sake. “[They] said they wouldn’t come to the game and would forfeit because I am a girl,” Johnson told the Tidewater News.
