A Girls Perspective

Football has always been a male dominated sport, girls never really got a chance to show their football skills. However, we are starting to see more and more schools with a female member on their varsity football teams. 

We got to catch up with Alma High School’s very own Abby Schmieder.

Abby has always been a sport lover, soccer especially. Starting as goalie for the Girls Varsity Soccer team Abby had one heck of a leg. She decided to try out for the football team her senior year at Alma, becoming one of the two kickers on the team.

Q: What made you want to try out for the football team?

A: As a goalie I practice kicking, a lot, one day I had one of my friends hold a football for me so I could kick it, just to see how I did. I did a lot better than I thought I could. Being a kicker for the football team gave me the chance to improve my kicking ability for soccer season too.

Q: How did the boys react to having a girl on the team?

A: They were awesome! I’m friends with many of the guys on the team and they never made a huge deal of me being on the team. My favorite part was when I would get a tackle and all the guys would just go, “oooooooooooooo”.

Q: We noticed at some of the games we went to, the student section would start cheering your name, how did that feel?

A: Incredible. It was so cool to have the support of my classmates being a girl on a football team.

Q: Do you ever wish you would have tried out for the team earlier?

A: Not really. Football is a very physical sport and it’s draining. It was a really cool experience and I’m glad I did it, but one year was just enough for me.

Q: What was the biggest thing you got out of playing on a varsity football team?

A: Boys are the worst smelling thing ever. No, I think the biggest thing I took from playing on this team was support. Ya know they never gave up on each other and all the guys were encouraging towards each other, pumping each other up.