College First Place Tie: “Defying The Odds and Discovering My Purpose” by Morgan Smith

Morgan Smith of Franklin and Pierce (D2) after making history

 Women don’t belong in football-at least that’s what I’m told. I’m told that I’m just another publicity stunt, I am weak, I am too small, and that I will never be as talented as a man. Coaches, critics, and peers tell me I am not good enough because of my gender, but I play for a higher purpose.

     My senior year of high school I was able to walk onto the football team and play as their extra point kicker. There were boys on the other teams that would try to knock me over after a PAT, but I never experienced hate. Everyone around me supported me unconditionally. I was on top of the world.

     As a freshman in college, I would leave the Franklin Pierce women’s soccer program to tryout for a Division II football program. Remembering the feeling from my senior year and the comradery that came from playing on a football team led me to Coach Gaskamp. He gave me a chance, one that I will never forget.

     Preseason my sophomore year was the most exciting and terrifying time of my life. I had no idea what to expect. There were so many uncertainties; but once we started practicing my anxiety was alleviated, I was welcomed onto the team just like anyone else. I began to make friends and felt like an equal. Things were going great, but then I started to receive attention.

     At first the attention was small, people at my university started to talk about me and how I was on the team. Journalism majors asked me to interview for their assignments and my school paper put out a small piece on me. I didn’t mind this kind of attention, it made making friends a lot easier. People all over campus knew me as the “female kicker.”

     Our first game of the year we would lose terribly and I would only go in for one kickoff to start the second half. The second game of our season, against Curry College, is where everything would change. I would kickoff and complete all of my PATs. It would be our first program win and it was one of the best games of my life. It was a close game; we worked hard as a team and celebrated every little victory. Once the game was over and we had won, I felt so proud of myself. I had contributed to our two-point lead by making both of my PATs. I had no idea in that moment that I had made history. I became the first woman in the Division II NE10 Conference to score and play in a football game.

     The NE10 and NCAA posted my kick to share with the world. College football pages, Franklin Pierce University, my friends, family, and peers would share these posts all over social media. My initial reaction was to be excited and happy, but that would be short-lived. Comment sections would show the nasty and toxic nature that exists in football. People would criticize me, curse me out, tell me I belong on a women’s team; hundreds of comments were made to put me down and I became a target for misogynists everywhere. I made the mistake of reading every single hateful word that these people commented. I couldn’t understand why they took one of the best moments in my athletic career and squashed it.

     Even after three years of playing football these comments still cut deep. Every time I post on social media or have a story written on me, there are people who say terrible things. I’ll be honest, sometimes these harsh words make me want to quit. Then I think of the hundreds of little girls who would see me give up.

Football is so much more than a sport for me. It’s a place for advocacy. For far too long, this sport has been a boy’s club where women do not get the opportunity to participate. It is my hope that my participation encourages change. I play so that future generations will be expected to play, not just allowed to play.

College First Place Tie: “My Why” by Matthew Alswanger

Matthew Alswanger of Duke University

One day after soccer practice my freshman year of high school, the special teams’ coach for the football team asked me if I had ever kicked a football. After responding no, he told me to give it some more thought and he went on his way. 

     Waiting for my mom to pick me up from practice, I sat in the corner of the track and watched the football team practice. I decided to put on my cleats and approach the coach. He showed me the kicking steps and one after another, I kicked the ball up and through the goalpost from 30 and even 40 yards away. After my last kick, the coaches pleadingly asked me to give football a shot. 

     When I told my parents, they were conflicted, but I knew I wanted to give it a chance. With a short speech memorized, I approached my soccer coach to ask if I could try football and was promptly kicked off the team for attempting to explore that opportunity. 

     I walked up the long hill to the football field and told the coach “you have a kicker.” Our first varsity scrimmage was a week later. I remember vividly my excitement and anxiety going out for my first extra point, ever. As I swung through the ball, I saw it go through the posts, but my vision went black. When I kicked, I was struck by a varsity player nearly three times my size. An ambulance brought me to the nearest hospital where I learned I broke my tibia, fibula, and ankle. I was put in a cast from my toes to my hip and was restricted to a wheelchair for the next three months. 

     The experiences of having my leg reset twice and physical therapy were painful, both physically and mentally, but they pushed me to be resilient and build my work ethic in a new way. I’d never been faced with this type of challenge, but I pushed myself to get stronger and recover so that I could come back the next season and try the sport I was beginning to fall in love with. My desire to stick with football motivated me to keep pushing myself even when the doctors said it was improbable that I would ever step foot on the field again. After over a year of hard work, I found myself back in pads and kicking once again. 

     Throughout my high school career, I spent countless hours studying the art of kicking. From books to articles and videos I did everything I could to improve my ability so that I could help my team. I was going to do everything within my power to be the best kicker that I could be. With a love so deep for kicking, I began thinking about continuing my football career in college. After hearing head Coach Jay Civetti speak at the Tufts football camp, I knew it was where I wanted to call home. I cherished my career there, earning many accolades such as special teams player of the year and setting multiple school records. 

     When my final season was taken away due to COVID I knew I wanted to finish out my career on a positive note. My hard work and perseverance allowed me to attain a spot as a graduate transfer on the football team at Duke University where I am pursuing my master’s in Management at the Fuqua School of Business. 

     The great game of football has taught me many important lessons. I have learned that no matter the circumstance, the most powerful motivator for me has been finding what drives me: my why. In times of struggle, the family and community bonds that football creates have helped push me to never stop striving for excellence. 

Persistence is a mentality of success that is developed gradually and forged in the most difficult of times. I am confident that if I had never given football the chance I would not be who and where I am today.

First Place: “Winning The War Within” by Logan Eastman

Logan Eastman of Riverbend High School (VA)

 Wayne Gretzky once said "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take”. My name is Logan and I am a kicker from Virginia. I have a passion for playing sports and play multiple sports throughout the year; football in the fall, wrestling in the winter, soccer in the spring and lacrosse in the summer. My favorite failure was 5 years ago. I will never forget turning down the opportunity to attempt a game winning penalty kick and I always think back to this when making decisions. I was playing a soccer game 5 years ago and it was 2-2 with 2 mins left in a game that would send us to the playoffs. My coach was looking for penalty kickers and asked the group if anyone was up for the challenge if it went down to that; no one raised their hand. So with no extra time left in the game he asked the best players to take them. He found two takers out of three and I still regret my decision to this day. I said no. I did not think I could/should take the shot because I was a younger player and was not as confident in myself as I am now. We ended up losing 3-0 in penalty shootouts. Although my shot would not have changed the result of the game, I have always considered that decision a failure. After that game, I was not sad but mad and annoyed with myself for not taking the challenge because I had nothing to lose by taking the shot.

I learned my lesson pretty quickly because in that league a year later we were in the same scenario as the year earlier. The second time, I said yes. I was the first of three to kick and I scored. Unfortunately the team lost that game but I didn't. It was a mental win cause I won the war of doubt. I am still learning from that because I realized the importance of stepping out of my comfort zone and challenging myself. I bounced back the next season when we were in the championship game where I found myself in the same scenario and I didn't hesitate. I immediately said yes I was the first one to be asked and with all the confidence and belief in the world I stroked it in the bottom corner to start with a lead 1-0 we ended up winning 3-2. That is where I really realized that I could do anything if I put the work in and if I believed in myself. With all of this confidence, I decided to use my soccer skills to help our football team. I was a long snapper the first year of ever playing football on the varsity team. Now I am the starting kicker. In the end it all comes back to if I would have ever taken the shot and made it to where I am now.

     This did not just help me in sports but in life in general. With this new confidence from that and other successes, it has led me to push myself more academically by taking rigorous AP and college level courses and trying out for and playing three varsity sports as a freshmen. What I also learned about myself is that I always want to learn from every mistake. Mistakes are just opportunities to learn and blowing a missed kick and not learning is useless. It is a meaningless rep and film if you don't watch it. Also. I feel like not believing in myself did not just hurt me but it hurt all of my coaches who saw my talent and watched me make my decision; they were not going to make me do It. All of my teachers, coaches, and loved ones want to see me succeed as much as I do and now I am past doubting myself. I can succeed and continue to succeed because once you get past that point nothing can hold you back. I started high school in quarantine and I came out with a 3.9 GPA and it was hard work and belief in myself. mad and annoyed with myself for not taking the challenge because I had nothing to lose by taking the shot.

Second Place: “I Love Kicking, but do I Hate Football?” by Lucas Orlovitz

Lucas Orlovitz of John Jay Cross River HS (NY) mid kick off

The difference between the way you talk about football last year and this year is crazy,” my mom said to me before the sun came up one August morning. On my way to another double session before dawn, I echoed a thought I’d been frequently having, “I can’t wait to get through practice today, hopefully I won’t have to do much” I said to her as we drove to the high school. She then reminded me about my lack of motivation, compared to last season, saying, “Last year you were so excited, you spoke about how hard you wanted to work and how good you wanted to be. This year, all I’ve heard you say is that you want to get through practice and do nothing” This talk with my mom rocked my world. I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I wanted to know what happened. Why did it happen? I had so much passion for this game, and now, I loathe it. It fills me with anxiety, anger, and pain. Getting through practice has become a task.  After weeks have passed, and I’ve reflected on my thoughts, I think I can answer my own questions, and while I know I still love kicking footballs, I’m ready for my football career to be over. 

     I saw an orange kickoff tee in my local Target one day, and my dad was nice enough to spare a few dollars and get it for me. I had a little football, and I took both to my elementary school and started kicking the ball. My dad and I debated if fifth grade me could make an extra point. I remember another night with my dad at Port Chester High School, when I couldn’t get the ball over the crossbar. I went home and watched videos trying to teach myself how to kick a football, and with some help along the way, I learned. That night still sticks with me, a reminder of my passion for kicking. Eventually I grew to love kicking the football, more so than anything else in my life.

     I dreamt of being on the field on Friday nights, of kicking the ball through the uprights, of having thousands of people watching just me perform. For an occasional few seconds, being the focus of every person in the stands. It drove me to work, to be the best I could be, and I worked at it, I worked some more, and then I kept working at it. Nothing else in the world feels like the sensation of the ball coming off your foot, seeing it rotate in a clean, end over end manner, and floating through the uprights. That sequence of events still brings me an incalculable amount of joy and pride. But playing football has been another story for me. 

     The last two seasons of varsity football have been incredibly tough for me. Football has filled me with stress and anxiety to the point that something I love so much, kicking the ball, has been surrounded by a negative aura. What I deal with from day to day is not something unique to me. Whether it be the constant berating from coaches about what I do at practice, which for me, are long and monotonous, or the dehumanizing conversations I’ve had with them, it’s reached a boiling point for me. My coaches see me as having no value, providing nothing for the team, and therefore, I am treated like nothing, despite my successes. The numerous times I’ve contemplated quitting is upsetting. I don’t though, because I don’t want to disappoint that ten- or eleven-year-old kid whose dream it was to be the kicker. I don’t want to quit on my teammates either, who respect me and what I do. But as I look to the future, and see my career finishing, I am not filled with disappointment, or sadness. I almost feel joyous, like a burden is going to be lifted, and my life is going to be better, more enjoyable. I will continue to give football everything I have, despite football taking so much from me. 

Finalist: “The First Female” by Miko Coakley

Miko Coakley of Hopkins School (CT) with a young fan at Hopkins’ Youth Football Clinic

Finalist Video Submission: “Continuing The Dream” by Jeffrey Sexton

Jeffrey Sexton of Princeton University celebrates hitting a game winner this season

Finalist: “Homemade Uprights” by Nick Reed

Nick Reed of Harrison High School (NY) celebrates after splitting the uprights last season

It was March 25th, 2020. School had been closed for two weeks and we had just received another notice stating we would be out of school indefinitely. We were all at home, the Covid pandemic was getting quite serious in our community in Harrison NY, only a few miles away from Covid ground zero “New Rochelle, NY”. Everyday we read news that more people were admitted to the hospital and many tested positive for the virus. In what seemed like an overnight decision, nobody was allowed out of their houses. I couldn’t go to school. I couldn’t see my friends or practice sports.

As a varsity kicker for Harrison High School, I would go to our football field a few times a week to practice kicking. On this day however, when my dad drove me to my high school, we saw a lock on the fence around the field. I thought it was crazy for the field to be closed and it took a while to take that in. That is when it hit home for me that Covid was serious. I had been unable to kick for two weeks, and now it became obvious I had to figure out a way for me to kick, as we were able to predict that Covid, along with the physical movement restrictions, was here to stay. I am an athlete that takes his craft seriously, I plan to kick in college and my dream is to be an NFL kicker. I knew I needed a solution in order to stay at the top of my game and continue improving. The way I saw it, Covid wasn’t stopping kickers in Texas or Florida, where restrictions were limited. As a kicker in New York I needed to do whatever I could to continue kicking during this unprecedented time.

     My dad and I talked and realized we could try to build our own set of uprights to allow me to kick in our backyard. At first glance, it seemed pretty straightforward. Just put some pipes together and set them up straight. However we discovered it was not so simple. We sat down and looked up images of other “makeshift” field goal uprights. After getting a good idea of what we wanted to build, we decided to pull out pen and paper and drew down a few prototypes. While most people on the internet recommended getting materials from the local hardware store we decided to repurpose my old soccer goal. It had been a gift from my grandmother before she died of cancer. She had asked me to always keep it to remember her as I practiced soccer. First we took the goal apart. Progress. We then started to lay out the pvc pipes following our design. We were fortunate in that we had enough pieces and we were able to stand it up!

     When I got to kick my first field goal at home it was such an amazing feeling. I still remember the perfect foot-to-ball contact and the end-over-end spin splitting the uprights. As the restrictions went on I continued to kick in my backyard. My parents and I made changes to our makeshift field goal in order to enhance my experience. We measured out up to 40 yards (as far as we could go before reaching the street) and spray painted the markers. I was able to improve upon my craft as I continued on working for that one end goal I had in mind. I was not going to let Covid stop me.