Still Kicking My Journey As the First Woman to Play Division 1 College Football

Chapter One Are You Here for the Girls' Lacrosse Meeting? Most people quit football because of an injury. In my case, I took up the game because of one. My gridiron career actually started with an awkward slide on a soccer field. I was 13 years old and playing in a preseason game with my competitive club team. It was a cold, wet February weekend so the field was a swampy mess. I was chasing after a player who had the ball when I hit a particularly slick area of the field. I knocked the ball out from under her feet, and it squirted out of bounds. Unfortunately, one of my legs went one way with the ball, while the other leg stayed on the field. A sharp, searing pain shot through my left thigh. It felt like it had been torn in half. Before I even stood up, I knew it wasn't good. It took just a moment, but a slip and a slide on a soaking wet field changed my life forever. I didn't know how long I would be out of action, but the days quickly turned to weeks and then to months. I spent a lot of time resting the leg, icing it, and stretching it. But every time I tried to run, I couldn't go more than a few strides before the shooting pains hit. Then I'd start limping. When the leg didn't get better, I finally had an MRI. As it turned out, the tearing feeling I had felt on the field that day was exactly that. The scan showed a complete tear of my left quadriceps muscle. The next thing I knew, instead of spending most of my time on the soccer field with my team, I was spending it at a rehab clinic with a therapist. The season rolled by as I tried to nurse my quad back to health. It did start to heal, but it seemed like every time I made some progress, I'd hit a growth spurt. I would grow, but the injured muscle wouldn't grow with me. Every time I ran, it went into spasms. Spring turned to summer, and summer to fall. Even after months of rehab, I still couldn't get the full motion and agility I needed to make the cuts and slides on the soccer field. Eventually I got to a point where I could jog, but I still couldn't sprint at full speed. I knew soccer, at the level I played at, was out of the picture. One year and three doctors later, I was finished -- at least for an unknown period of time. The reality hit me hard. I had been playing at the highest competitive level in the state and was preparing for high school. I would be going to Chatfield High School, which boasted one of the top girls' soccer programs in the state. And the University of Colorado, where I wanted to go to college, had just added women's soccer to their athletic program. Even as a 13-year-old, my goal was to play Division I college soccer. The thought that I might not be able to play soccer in college, let alone high school, was hard to swallow. Then it happened. On a typical spring evening more than a year after my injury. After dinner, Dad; my younger brother, Joe; and I went to the backyard to toss a ball around. We had a big yard that held soccer nets, batting tees, even a makeshift baseball diamond for our own pickup games. That night, the ball we tossed happened to be a football. We jogged around, doing pass plays and chucking the ball back and forth. On one particular play, I propped the ball up and kicked it back to my dad. Just on a whim. The ball flew about 20 yards over his head. "Holy smokes, Kate!" My dad was amazed. "Could you do that again?" "I don't know, probably..." I shrugged. It wasn't any big deal to me, I'd just kicked the ball. "Hang on a second." He grabbed the ball, ran over, crouched down, and held the ball for me. "Give it a shot." Joe ran back to the edge of the yard to catch it. I lined up behind the ball, took a few steps, and gave it a pop. BAM! The ball sailed over Joe's head and landed in a neighbor's yard. "Stay there!" Dad yelled to Joe. Dad retrieved the ball and began counting his steps as he made his way back to me. "That went close to 40 yardHnida, Katie is the author of 'Still Kicking My Journey As the First Woman to Play Division 1 College Football', published 2006 under ISBN 9780743289771 and ISBN 0743289773.