Shortly after Malibu High School’s Homecoming football game last Friday night, two young girls stood near the sidelines and yelled their affection at the team’s kicker, who had converted an extra point in the Sharks’ 22-7 loss to Ribet Academy.
“They screamed, ‘Girls rule,’” the kicker recalled. “It made me feel like I’m an inspiration to all these young people growing up. It was the best thing ever.”
Indeed, with twin ponytails draped across the front of her jersey, Malibu High School varsity kicker Jane Sidley makes an impression. Using the powerful leg that has won her a college scholarship in soccer to the University of Vermont, the senior standout for the MHS girls soccer team joined the Sharks football team at the start of the summer and hasn’t looked back.
She joins a growing trend of female participation in what has tradition ally been a male sport. According to the National Federation of State High School Associations, more than 1,500 girls participated in football in 2012. In California alone, 232 played. Now add one more to the ever-growing number.
At 5-foot-9 and 145 pounds, the two-time second-team all-league honoree for the MHS girls’ soccer team was encouraged to play football by her father, good friend Cooper Bell and soccer peer Sydney Anderson of Villanova Prep.
Last spring Sidley approached Malibu coach Ray Humphrey, who welcomed her to the team with open arms. She immediately went to the field with Bell and began making kicks from 20, 25, 30, 35 and then 40 yards. A new-found love was born on the gridiron.
“We set up a tee one day and she was nailing 35-yarders,” said Bell, who plays water polo for Malibu. “When she realized that she could actually do it, then she was all gung-ho.”
Throughout the summer Sidley worked on field goal kicking and extra points. Soon August approached and then the intense period of preseason practices known as “hell week” to begin the season.
Sidley says she has discovered a whole new respect for the players and the football program.
“The first day I ever put pads on was the first day of hell week. It was from seven in the morning to five at night. It was so brutal. And I had soccer practice directly after,” said Sidley, who trains with her club soccer team Real So Cal twice a week from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. “When I took them off it was the best feeling ever.
“It’s crazy how much work that goes into this. It’s shocking to me. It’s changed how I look at football and especially these boys.”
Sidley has fit in seamlessly with her teammates, working every day on the mechanics of her kicking.
“They’ve accepted me,” Sidley said. “Obviously it’s really different having a girl but they seem to enjoy it.”
Humphrey said there were little adjustments that took some getting used to, but Sidley’s work ethic has shone through and contributed to the team.
“It still is a little weird though because I always say, ‘Let’s go guys, or come on fellas,’ now I got to correct myself with saying ‘players,’” Humphrey said with a chuckle. “But she works hard and the guys like her. They treat her like any other player. She fits right in.”
Four games into the season, Sidley has made three extra points while waiting patiently to make her first field goal. She missed her only two field goal attempts against Pasadena Poly, but it is only a matter of time before one of her kicks splits the uprights.
“I was really bummed. I shouldn’t be missing,” said Sidley. “I’ve been working hard on this for six months now. I’m just a super-competitive athlete so I’m hard on myself.”
The pain was quickly alleviated when she converted two extra points versus Poly. Sidley made another extra point at the Homecoming game last week.
“When I made it the boys were like, ‘Good job, Jane’ and hitting my back,” Sidley said. “When I came off the field everyone was all excited. All the fans were cheering. I felt good and all the nerves went away. I was really stoked. Five-hundred pounds were lifted on my shoulder.”
“We are all really excited for her. When she hits that first field goal, we are going to go nuts,” Bell added.
