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A young woman named Haley Van Voorhis has made NCAA football history. The 19-year-old became the first female player outside the kicker position to appear in an NCAA football game. A safety for Shenandoah University, Van Voorhis and her team beat Juniata College 48-7 in a Division-III game on Saturday, September 23.
Van Voorhis entered the game with a minute left in the first quarter. The 5’6″, 145-pound junior registered a quarterback hurry after tackling the Juniata quarterback just after he had released the ball, resulting in an incomplete pass on the third down.
“It’s an amazing thing,” Van Voorhis told The Washington Post after the game. “I just wanted to get out and do my thing. I want to show other people this is what women can do, to show what I can do. It’s a big moment. I made the impossible possible, and I’m excited about that.”
Her love for football can be traced back to when she was a toddler. One day, while watching TV, she asked her mom why there weren’t any girls on the field. At a loss, her mother replied that she didn’t know why. “I guess she didn’t take it as if there couldn’t be any,” her mom, Heidi, later told ESPN. Devoted to making herself fit for a team, she spent hours on end at the gym, and her family hired a personal trainer to improve her speed. She went on to became the first girl to play football at her high school.
She now joins the small group of female players to have participated in NCAA football. Twenty years ago, in 2003, Katie Hnida at the University of New Mexico became the first woman to score as a placekicker in an NCAA Division I-A (now FBS) game. In 2020, Sarah Fuller from Vanderbilt University, became the first female athlete to play in a Power Five college football game.
Tracy Fitzsimmons, the university president, called Van Voorhis’ achievement “an extraordinary accomplishment for women everywhere,” while the team coach, Scott Yoder, has stated that her role in the team will definitely grow. As for Van Voorhis, she hopes to encourage others with similar dreams. Her advice? “Don’t listen to people who say don’t do it. Don’t be scared. Just go at it with everything you can.”
A young woman named Haley Van Voorhis has made NCAA football history. The 19-year-old became the first female player outside the kicker position to appear in an NCAA football game.
Ver esta publicación en Instagram
Van Voorhis entered the game with a minute left in the first quarter. She registered a quarterback hurry after tackling the other team’s quarterback.
History is made: Shenandoah safety #10 Haley Van Voorhis becomes the first female non-kicker to appear in a college football game at the NCAA or NAIA levels for #D3FB @SUhornetsFB.
The junior hurried the QB on the play: pic.twitter.com/0mW8K6WeDG
— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) September 23, 2023
“I just wanted to get out and do my thing. I want to show other people this is what women can do, to show what I can do. It’s a big moment. I made the impossible possible, and I’m excited about that.”
Ver esta publicación en Instagram
Haley Van Voorhis: Instagram
h/t: [NPR]
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