Football Players Women

Rebecca Andreas of Lee Vining High is believed to be the first female football player voted to an all-league first team in the CIF Southern Section. Andreas, a 5-foot-6, 145-pound junior, was unanimously chosen a first-team offensive guard by the Hi-Lo League coaches last Friday. Lee Vining, located 25 miles north of Mammoth, competes in the eight-man small schools division. Andreas, 15, starts at offensive and defensive guard for the Tigers, who were 1-7.

The University of Colorado announced Wednesday that it would pay $2.85 million to settle lawsuits filed by two women who said they were raped by football players, closing the book on a scandal that tarnished the school's athletic department and led to the departure of its chancellor. The assaults allegedly occurred in 2001 when a group of football players and recruits crashed an off-campus party in Boulder.

To a casual observer, the scene at a recent high school football game might have seemed odd. A kicker makes a short field goal, jumps up and down in celebration and finally leaps into the arms of a 280-pound lineman, who smothers the 5-foot-6, 116-pound kicker with a big, long bear hug. But while some players might have rewarded their teammate with a pat on the behind for a good kick, Monroe High players and coaches treat their kicker differently--and for good reason. Their kicker is a girl.

A female kicker who tried out for the Duke University football team in the mid-1990s was awarded $2 million in punitive damages Thursday by a jury in Greensboro, N.C., which ruled that the school cut her from the team solely because of her gender, a federal violation. Heather Sue Mercer's contention that she was discriminated against was upheld by a jury after only two hours of deliberation.

Football was not in Rebecca Andreas' future. At least, that's what she told herself after quitting the Lee Vining High team when she found the going was tough. Her teachers and friends talked her into giving it another try, but the new coach wasn't convinced. He said he thought she would be too fragile. It took only two days of practice to change his mind. That was last year. This year, Ed Blankenship isn't the only coach whose mind has been changed.

First-year student and would-be kicker Sue Mercer failed in her bid to become the first female to make an NCAA Division I football team, Duke Coach Fred Goldsmith said Monday. She will be offered a spot as a special teams manager, Goldsmith said. "She's not where she needs to be to kick at this level of football," Goldsmith said. "The leg strength wasn't there." Goldsmith snapped the ball and assistant coach Fred Chatham did the holding at the secret tryout Monday at Wallace Wade Stadium.

The University of Colorado announced Wednesday that it would pay $2.85 million to settle lawsuits filed by two women who said they were raped by football players, closing the book on a scandal that tarnished the school's athletic department and led to the departure of its chancellor. The assaults allegedly occurred in 2001 when a group of football players and recruits crashed an off-campus party in Boulder.

It was another sweltering day in Orange County, and Santa Ana Valley's Yesenia Campos could have escaped the heat at the beach, or at South Coast Plaza, or even at a summer job in an air-conditioned office. Instead, she's toiling along with her teammates on the football field, preparing for the Sept. 10 opener against Rancho Alamitos. OK, so Campos isn't the first girl in the county to play football. Last season, Melissa Stearns was the kicker for La Quinta.

What makes them kick. What makes them tick. Female high school football players, on the next Oprah. It's bound to happen. And don't be surprised if the panel includes best friends at neighboring schools, Chrissy Sanford of Newbury Park and Joy Barry of Thousand Oaks. Sanford set a Newbury Park record Friday by kicking six extra points. Barry was two for two in Thousand Oaks' opener, although the team attempted no kicks last week.

Potomac High's kicker made six of six extra-point tries and was crowned homecoming queen--all at the same game. Cheryl Zimmermann, her football team's co-captain and kicker, had to be pulled out of the locker room to accept her tiara and roses during halftime ceremonies Friday night. The 5-foot-6, 112-pound senior was told just before halftime that she had been selected by the school's students as homecoming queen. Her coach escorted her from the locker room to midfield for the ceremonies.

Diocelina Macias pulled her ponytail through a colorful scrunchie, wrapped the rest of her hair in a blue bandanna and maneuvered a shiny orange and black Lincoln High football helmet onto her head. "I got this against Roosevelt," she said, pointing to a distinct white scratch in the helmet's otherwise perfect veneer. "I'm so proud of that. It makes it all worth it."

If junior Jessica Fernandez of Westlake High is as tenacious on the football field as she is in the offices of school administrators, Newbury Park is in trouble. Fernandez might love powder-puff football, but she is no cream puff. She wrangled with athletic directors and principals at Westlake and Newbury Park for a month before finally gaining approval for a powder-puff game between the schools tonight at 6 at Westlake.

It was another sweltering day in Orange County, and Santa Ana Valley's Yesenia Campos could have escaped the heat at the beach, or at South Coast Plaza, or even at a summer job in an air-conditioned office. Instead, she's toiling along with her teammates on the football field, preparing for the Sept. 10 opener against Rancho Alamitos. OK, so Campos isn't the first girl in the county to play football. Last season, Melissa Stearns was the kicker for La Quinta.

To a casual observer, the scene at a recent high school football game might have seemed odd. A kicker makes a short field goal, jumps up and down in celebration and finally leaps into the arms of a 280-pound lineman, who smothers the 5-foot-6, 116-pound kicker with a big, long bear hug. But while some players might have rewarded their teammate with a pat on the behind for a good kick, Monroe High players and coaches treat their kicker differently--and for good reason. Their kicker is a girl.

To a casual observer the scene at a recent high school football game might have seemed a little odd. A kicker makes a short field goal, jumps up and down in celebration and finally into the arms of a 280-pound lineman, who smothers the 5-foot-6, 116-pound kicker with a big, long bear hug. While most would likely reward their teammate with a pat on the behind for a good kick, Monroe players and coaches treat their kicker altogether differently--and for good reason. Their kicker is a girl.

Numbers 28 and 58 looked just like the rest of the freshman football players on the Pacifica High practice field the other day, their blue and white uniforms, silver helmets and assorted pads making them indistinguishable from the other 50 players running sprints and practicing drills. "I was standing out there and asked if I looked like a guy or a girl," No. 58 said. "They don't know who I am with all that equipment." No. 58 is in fact a girl, 14-year-old Sandra Barrera. So is No.

A female kicker who tried out for the Duke University football team in the mid-1990s was awarded $2 million in punitive damages Thursday by a jury in Greensboro, N.C., which ruled that the school cut her from the team solely because of her gender, a federal violation. Heather Sue Mercer's contention that she was discriminated against was upheld by a jury after only two hours of deliberation.

To a casual observer the scene at a recent high school football game might have seemed a little odd. A kicker makes a short field goal, jumps up and down in celebration and finally into the arms of a 280-pound lineman, who smothers the 5-foot-6, 116-pound kicker with a big, long bear hug. While most would likely reward their teammate with a pat on the behind for a good kick, Monroe players and coaches treat their kicker altogether differently--and for good reason. Their kicker is a girl.

First-year student and would-be kicker Sue Mercer failed in her bid to become the first female to make an NCAA Division I football team, Duke Coach Fred Goldsmith said Monday. She will be offered a spot as a special teams manager, Goldsmith said. "She's not where she needs to be to kick at this level of football," Goldsmith said. "The leg strength wasn't there." Goldsmith snapped the ball and assistant coach Fred Chatham did the holding at the secret tryout Monday at Wallace Wade Stadium.