Posted on 07/25/2002 8:37:12 AM PDT by mhking
Female kicker to try out at Penn State
July 24, 2002
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) -- A former soccer player who kicked a career-long 36-yard field goal in high school will try out next month to be the first woman to play football for Penn State.
Stephanie Weimer, a three-year starter at place-kicker for Serra Catholic in McKeesport, Pa., will try out with other potential walk-ons when classes start in August.
She will have her work cut out for her -- Penn State already has three place-kickers on the roster, including two with game experience. Robbie Gould, who started last year as a true freshman, has hit six of 10 tries, including a career-long 46-yard score, and was a perfect 29-of-29 on extra points. David Kimball, who often handles kickoffs, is 0-3 on field goals and 3-4 on extra points.
But Tom Nola, who coached the 5-foot-4, 120-pound Weimer at Serra, said he thinks she has what it takes.
``She's a competitor like most boys are,'' Nola said. ``She's very consistent. If she had to kick 100 times from 30 yards in, I would say she makes 98 of them.''
Even if she makes the team, Weimer won't be the first woman to suit up for an NCAA Division I-A football program. Heather Sue Mercer made the team at Duke -- then won a $2 million discrimination lawsuit after she was cut from the team. Louisville and Colorado also have had women on their rosters, but none ever took the field.
In 1997, Liz Heaston became the first woman to score in a college game, kicking two extra points for Willamette, which was then an NAIA school. Last year, Jacksonville State's Ashley Martin became the first woman in NCAA Division I-AA to score, kicking four extra points.
No woman has kicked a field goal in collegiate play.
Weimer first played soccer at Serra, but quit after her freshman year in order to concentrate on football, where she was a three-year starter.
She kicked three field goals her sophomore year, but her season ended early when a Greensburg Central Catholic player dove into her right knee, tearing three ligaments. That summer, Weimer attended Penn State's kicking camp. She connected on one of two tries as a junior before an injury again shortened her season.
Her six field goals last year were the most among WPIAL Class A schools.
If I were the Duke coach, I'd had her kickoff against ACC teams like Fla. State, Ga. Tech, Carolina and Clemson...then, again, she'd have probably sued those teams when they knocked her flat on her ass during the return!
Don't forget, at Penn State, she's gotta go up against other Big Ten teams like Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, and Purdue. Their defense won't short stop at planting her in the midwestern cornfields when they reach her...
I don't have a problem with girls playing football if they want to, especially at a skill position like kicker, BUT...
What happens the first time her attempt is blocked? Once that ball is loose, roughing the kicker is no longer an applicable penalty, she's just another player on the field who can be hit hard. You don't think there isn't at least ONE Big 10 player that would love an opportunity to "show those girls a lesson"? How fast do you suppose she's going to get up after a 6'4, 260 pound LB lays a shot on her at full speed?
I just don't want to see the press frenzy if she gets hurt.
I had successfully purged the knowledge of the existence of that movie from my memory.
Thanks alot.
and then, after making cigs and burgers virtual felonies,
they came after football ...
wish there was an open-season on PC adherents,
kinda like the one for trash fish ...
I just don't want to see the press frenzy if she gets hurt.
A big-assed W.U.B.A. from USNA would be better suited to play football. As a matter of fact, I hope Navy puts a few females on the field this year. It certainly couldn't hurt.
She'll just have to take it like a man.
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