Girls Playing Football

Girls Playing Football

By: Emerald Young

Have you ever wondered why girls don't play high school football? Girls play on the elementary kids football teams sometimes. In the movie The Longshots Keke Palmer plays a girl named Jasmine who has a talent for throwing a football and her uncle Curtis (O'shaya Jackson) turns that talent into a passion for the game. He talks her into trying out for a football team. The coaches and the rest of the team are against a girl playing football, but she still gets a spot on the team and proves them all wrong. So why don't girls play football in high school?

Here at Chaparral there hasn't been a girl on the football team in all the years that Justin Burke has been the coach. There was a girl on the football team before he became the coach who played her freshman and sophomore year. Most of the time when girls play football they play when they are younger, in their elementary school years. As the girls and boys grow into young men and woman the amount of females that play the sport decrease.

It's not that girls can't play, just that it's harder for a girl to play football. Boys are usually bigger, stronger and faster than girls and are more physically built. It's also harder to find a place for the girl to change when they travel for games. One big issue with females playing football is the nature of the game. Football is very physical and some of the blocking, tackling, grabbing, twisting, and pulling becomes somewhat uncomfortable with boys and girls together. Girls playing football is rare and challenging but not impossible.