issue i: jaden witt's article

(Caption: Me, #17, wondering why he caled heads.)

A Girl on a Football Team

Today, when practice was done, we were in the huddle and coach was giving us our pep talk. He said “Ok boys, we have a game tomorrow so don’t stay out too late at the bonfire. Go home and get a good night’s sleep.” Then Tanner said, “O, so Jaden can stay out late at the bonfire and doesn’t have to go home and get a good night’s sleep?” Then coach said, “Yea, she’s a good student and doesn’t get bad grades.” It was really funny.

Some times when coach is yelling at players, for missing a tackle or running a wrong route, he grabs their facemask to talk to them. I feel left out sometimes, because he never does that to me. I think he would, but I don’t think he does because of that law that male teachers can’t touch girls. He leans on my shoulder pads, like every one else, when we’re in the huddle, but I still feel like I am separated from the rest of the gang.

It’s kind of hard to have long hair and play football. Trying to keep a pony tail in with a helmet on is really hard. We have to take off our helmets to get water and my hair always gets stuck in the pads in the helmet. So it pulls my hair out of the pony tail. When I put my helmet back on then I always have bangs in my face and I always have to stick my hands up my helmet to get them out of the way. Even if I use the non-slip pony tails it still gets all messed up. It is so annoying.

It is kind of disappointing that I can’t get pumped up in the locker room before games with the rest of the team. I can hear them laughing and yelling from the girl’s locker room and I feel like I miss out on so much. At least this year our games are right after school so the volleyball players are getting dressed for the practices or games when I’m getting dressed for mine. Next year it’s going to be even harder because I’ll be on varsity and our games are at night so the volleyball players won’t even be there when I’m dressing for my games. It’s going to be hard because I won’t be able to hear the pep talk before the game unless coach gives it to us in the hallway or something. I don’t know how it is going to work next year because the visiting team uses the girl’s locker room to get changed. Sometimes I leave my things in my locker and I have to go in there and the boys just throw their clothes everywhere. It’s so gross because their boxers are just lying on the floor and the benches. Then it smells like colon and guy’s deodorant for a week after that too. I get a headache every time I go in there. It’s disgusting!!!

There’s a look at a girl’s life on a “boy’s” football team.