Ledes from the Land of Enchantment

Football is a kick for three new players

Isaiah Madril of Santa Fe High holds the ball while Jazzi Gonzales kicks field goals during practice at school Sept. 1. (Eddie Moore / )

Aside from gender, high school football kickers Molly Wissman and Jazzi Gonzales of Santa Fe High and Milena Keene of St. Michael’s have a few other things in common: They all play soccer and they all struggled when they first got theirs Uniforms put on.

“It wasn’t difficult to put them on at all,” Keene said, especially the pads.

Your Horsemen teammates “watched me fight. You laughed at me. It was a bit difficult to get them in place, but once they’re on it’s not that big of a deal. It makes you feel stronger. A little more bulky. “

Gonzales and Wissman had to overcome some misunderstood instructions from their coaches.

“It was certainly a fight,” Wissman said with a chuckle. “It was an embarrassing moment because the coach told us to put on the jersey first and then the pads. … What he meant was to put the jersey on the pads first. “

The laughter from both locker rooms was good-natured and the girls were gladly accepted by their teammates as an integral part of the squad.

Molly Wissman of Santa Fe High watches her boat while training at the school on Sept. 1. (Eddie Moore / )

“They are all great supporters,” said Wissman. “They all tell me and Jazzy good work and clap our helmets after training. They all respect us very much. … They all treat us like little sisters. They protect because they don’t want us to be attacked. “

Gonzales actually had a chance to tackle a kickoff but hesitated just a moment too long.

“Before kick-off, the coaches told me that if one of the players comes near you there is no pressure to attack them or try to attack them,” she recalls. “That was in the back of my mind, so I was hesitant. But my competitive instincts got out of hand and I thought I can’t just do nothing, so I picked him at the last second. In the end I pushed him out, but the referees didn’t see it, so it was a touchdown. I was a little nervous, but I wasn’t afraid to attack him … that hesitation threw me off. “

The Demons have struggled in table football for some time, said coach Andrew Martinez. And when requests to the boys ‘soccer team went unheeded, they turned to the girls’ team for help.

The response was overwhelming, he said, and more than half of the girls’ college cadres showed up for trial sessions. They cut it down to four and then narrowed it down to Gonzales and Wissman, who previously shared kickoff and extra point duties.

The team hasn’t tried a field goal yet, but Martinez said they both have a range of around 45 yards.

“They are pretty good at what they do,” he said. “I have full confidence in her. They’ll be at a point where they can make a huge difference in a ball game and I trust them completely. “

Wissman, goalkeeper in football, said it was especially rewarding for her to score an extra point on the football field for the first time.

“I had so much emotion built up and I was really nervous, my heart was beating so fast, but I was still super excited,” she said. “I felt confident and ready, but I was nervous. I did it. It was an amazing feeling to be honest. I’m a soccer goalkeeper so I never score. It was a great feeling. “

Milena Keene, a senior at St. Michael’s High School, kicks field goals and extra points for the Horsemen football team. She practiced with her team on September 2nd. (Eddie Moore / )

Keene of the Horsemen said she’d been talking about kicking for her school for a while, and when coach Joey Fernandez saw her kick the ball this spring, he decided to take a chance.

“She wanted to try it and felt like she could do it and asked me if she could come out when we started,” he said. “I saw her kick a little in the spring. I noticed that she was kicking pretty accurately. She kicked it from 35 to 45 yards. It was pretty accurate. And she would have the distance. I told her that I would give her a chance. “

Keene said the opportunity fulfilled a long-standing wish.

“I come from a soccer family and I am the only child,” she said. “It just happened and it was always something I always wanted to do. I wanted to do it for my father. He got a soccer player for my senior year. “

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