First female joins JV football team
Ready, set, HIKE!
Football is seen as male dominated sport, but freshman Nadia Marie Stoute wants to tackle this notion to the ground one game at a time.
Stoute is the first and only female football player on the junior varsity football team at Watkins Mill high school. “Most girls come up to me and tell me that I inspire them to play sports, so I feel like a role model to most people even though these people are upperclassman and I’m just starting here,” Stoute said.
Her coach was even surprised when he first heard that she wanted to be on the team. “At first I was concerned for her safety,” JV football coach Paul Vance said. “A girl playing football hasn’t happened… but I was encouraged by her passion for the game.”
While Stoute is having fun now, she does not want to do this as a career or see herself pursuing football after high school. “I don’t plan to do this in college,” Stoute said. “My plan is to ball out in basketball and probably after high school I’m going into the Air Force, and then after that I’ll become a journalist or a marine biologist.”
Stoute has actually been playing football for a long time now; this isn’t her first season on the field. “I’ve played football for two years already, this is my third year playing,” she added.
“My dad wanted me to play,” Stoute said. “[I played football] in New York for the Warriors and then here for the MV Chiefs.”
Stoute’s favorite thing about being a part of the team is just enjoying her teammates. “I went to middle school with all of them and I’ve played sports with them before,” Stoute said. But she has “to wait for everyone to be done in the locker room, and [I hate] when the [girls] locker room is locked,” Stoute said.
Despite not wanting to pursue football beyond high school, Stoute may encourage others to follow in her footsteps, and the coaching staff welcomes that.
“I encourage them to come out and try out for the team,” Vance added. “We don’t make cuts, we accept everybody. If they enjoy the fast pace game of football then they’ll enjoy getting coached and being disciplined and will instill self confidence and you’ll have camaraderie.”
“Be a part of a family on the football team,” Vance added.
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