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Monday, October 6, 2008
A Foot on the Field
Greater Louisville, KY
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By: Josh Cook
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Photo(s) By: Ron Burgis
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Ariel Stephens is making points on the gridiron as a Charlestown kicker.
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"I've never been so excited. It's an adrenaline rush like no other. I love football. I love soccer too, but I love football right now."
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On the day that Sarah Palin made history as the first woman nominated to be a Republican Vice Presidential nominee, Charlestown High School junior Ariel Stephens was having a historic evening of her own.
Stephens, believed to be the first girl to play football at the school, was 4-for-4 on extra point kicks as Charlestown beat Brownstown Central 28-24 in a battle between two Southern Indiana heavyweights.
"From what I know, I'm the first one," says Stephens, a junior. "I've never been so excited. It's an adrenaline rush like no other. I love football. I love soccer too, but I love football right now."
You see Stephens isn't just breaking barriers on the football field, she's doing it on the soccer field too. She plays goalie for the Pirates' co-ed team, which is coached by her father Rick.
Stephens was called into duty, literally, after the Pirates struggled with their post-touchdown conversions (going 2 for 7) in their season-opener.
"(Football) coach (Jason) Hawkins called my dad and asked if he had any good kickers and he said, 'Yeah one, but it's a girl,' and coach Hawkins said, 'That's okay send her out,'" Stephens recalls.
"So then I went to practice and kicked, and he says come back at 4 tomorrow," she says. "I came back and I'm kicking."
Stephens made her debut Aug. 29 as the then Class 3-A sixth-ranked Pirates took on traditional AA power Brownstown.
"I was nervous today at school, but then I put the pads on and I was okay," Stephens says afterward. "I had my first kick and I was a little nervous, but then after that I just kind of zoned everything else out."
Wearing No. 2, Stephens connected on her first three PAT attempts in a game that went down to the final buzzer. Trailing 24-21 late, the Pirates drove deep into Brownstown territory, and facing a fourth-and-2 at the 6-yard line, star running back Cameron Metzger carried the football in for the game-winning TD. Afterward Hawkins says he wanted to go for the win, but wouldn't have worried if Stephens had been kicking instead.
"She did a heck of job for us," he says. "I would have been comfortable with her (kicking), but we wanted to score a touchdown."
Stephens continued making PATs through September as Charlestown looked primed for another undefeated regular season.
"We feel comfortable if she gets her foot on it that she's going to make it," Hawkins says. "Nothing really has changed, the boys accept her and enjoy watching her kick, and we are happy the soccer coach sent her to us.
"The only thing that has changed is Josh Graham is not in the front of the line for juniors when we eat, now it is Ariel," Hawkins jokes.
In the afterglow of her first game and amid the celebration on Dutch Reis Field, Stephens had a number of well-wishers.
"I'm speechless right now," she says, holding her shoulder pads. "The boys are behind me 110 percent. Today they were coming up to me and telling me to keep my head up. They're the most supportive thing other than my parents and my family."
Just moments earlier her mother, Kyra, had found her daughter and embraced her. "I'm so proud of you," she says.
Another mother approached to give Stephens a congratulatory hug.
"You smell better than everybody else," she told her.
As she talked with a reporter, several young children approached her.
"You're a good kicker," one young boy says.
"Thanks," Stephens replied with a smile, her historic evening complete.
Josh Cook is a freelance writer in the Louisville area.
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