Girl Gets Snaps as Quarterback for Florida High School [Broward County/South Plantation High]

newser.com ^ | 8/29/12 | Kevin Spak

[SoFloFreeper]

Normally a third-string quarterback coming into a preseason game doesn't draw much attention. But it definitely did last Friday, when Erin DiMeglio got her first snap for the South Plantation High School. After all, DiMeglio may just be making Florida history, the Sun Sentinel reports. "I couldn't take the smile off my face," she says. "You'd think the other team would want to know why I'm there, but other players have been great."

State records indicate that 523 girls have played high school football since 1973, but it's unclear how many, if any, played quarterback. "I've never seen anything like this before," one local analyst says. DiMeglio's coach says he had other girls try out for the team just this year, but they couldn't cut it. "Erin can actually do what we ask of her," he says. Still, the 5-6, 160-pound DiMeglio doesn't think her real future is in football; she's just hoping her multi-sport athleticism will impress college basketball scouts.

[Hot Tabasco]

if girls want to play football they need to start their own school league.

Be careful of what you wish for....Many schools today are hard up for cash and considering terminating their athletic programs completely or forcing the parents to pay for play.

To force a school to create a female football program under Title IX could very easy push them over the line and make them decide to terminate existing programs.

If females can make the boys football team then let them play. As the story says, only 523 girls have attempted to play football in Fla since 1973 so it's not as if there is a flood of them demanding to join their boys teams.....

[fso301]

She's there to try to maximize her chance of getting a (non-football) athletic scholarship. They're going to try to minimize her chances of being hit. Don't know if they will succeed.

Her school is a big school. It's not as if South Plantation HS is a small 1A school that has a hard time getting enough players to put together a team. I have no problem with her playing as long as she receives no preferential treatment on the practice/playing field. I just think that when it comes to the contact drills, if her team has D1/D2 caliber players, she will start looking for a different sport to play after a few drills.

Yes QB's and kickers don't get the amount of routine contact the other positions get but they have to get some in order to know how to take a hit, safely block and safely tackle the MLB that just intercepted her pass.

In a high school game, Jack Tatum knocked out the starting QB and backup QB. What will the coaches do with her as #3QB if something similar happens?

[maddog55]

Pure opinion and that’s why we have them.

[dfwgator]

If she’s good enough to make the team, she should. If she earns playing time, she gets it. End of story.

But nobody should complain if she gets hit as hard as anyone else would.

[privatedrive]

sorry didn’t mean to direct that at you.

[privatedrive]

“But nobody should complain if she gets hit as hard as anyone else would.”

100% correct.

[dfwgator]

“But nobody should complain if she gets hit as hard as anyone else would.” 100% correct.

Well, it's easy to say, but in the real world it won't work that way.

[mtg]

Soon to come, several rule changes for football. Things such as redefining and calling more personal, unnecessary roughness, and unsportsmanship penalties.

[PapaBear3625]

I can see where the football team would want her. To train a receiver, you need a fairly accurate thrower. She's an asset in practice. I can see them paying her back for helping them in practice, by allowing her to play in a real game, in controlled conditions where she's unlikely to get hurt.

I have a feeling the deal is, the coach will only send her in if the outcome of the game is not in doubt, and he has a deal from the opposing coach to have the other team not hit her.

[ltc8k6]

Well, the trend has been to have separate divisions, and I guess that would continue. The occasional girl who wants to play with the boys doesn’t seem to be a big problem. Those stories crop up every now and then.

We could have NCAA women’s football, I suppose. With a pro league.

Profits in pro and college sports no longer seem to be related to attendance, so few spectators shouldn’t be a problem, if that’s the case.

Would people watch women’s college football? I would guess enough would. Women’s soccer is fairly popular.

[fso301]

I have a feeling the deal is, the coach will only send her in if the outcome of the game is not in doubt, and he has a deal from the opposing coach to have the other team not hit her.

Yeah. I also don't have a problem with her being treated the same as the occasional handicapped kid that plays as long as publicity she gets indicates she receives special consideration from both teams. Just don't go trying to make us believe she goes helmet to helmet with the D1 recruits.

[SampleMan]

1. You couldn’t find enough female players to fill the teams.

2. No one watches the bikini football league now, an NCAA league would be like a tree falling in the forest with no one there.

[SampleMan]

...what is the problem with letting them play on the boys team?

Believe it or not, some boys have an ethical issue with treating a girl with the same level of force that they do other boys. They would rather not try, than risk breaking her cheek bone with an elbow. They prefer not to wrestle a girl using positions and holds suited to a rapist. They would rather not pitch inside to back her away from the plate.

To accommodate the admittedly out of place girl (sorry, not everyone has every opportunity in life), you neuter boys' sports.

Girls are not entitled to be boys. If there aren't enough girls to form a team, they have no more right to play than if a boy wants to play a sport that isn't offered.

I've coached co-ed soccer up to age 14, and after seeing girls get broken bones simply from getting hit by the ball, I'm certain that co-ed should stop at 12.

Acknowledging reality has never been defined as being obtuse.

[9YearLurker]

Ha ha—I certainly agree with you in the case of wrestling!

Truthfully, there always seems something a bit off with it in a homo-erotic sort of way, and making it hetero in my mind isn’t any better.

[ltc8k6]

A college scholarship is pretty valuable and a pretty good incentive.

I wouldn’t watch a bikini league or a lingerie league, but I would watch girls play football.

[SampleMan]

"...but I would watch girls play football."

So that's you up there.

[ltc8k6]

Nah, I’d have better seats than that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_Women%27s_Football_League

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_Football_Alliance

IIRC, they have approached 10K in attendance at championship games.

[SampleMan]

So there are two leagues out there with over 100 teams with one being around for over ten years, and I’ve never heard of them until now. OK, point taken.

I’m not sure where 10k at a championship game gets you. You’ve got ~5,000 people involved in playing, coaching, managing with 100 teams, so it might just be a friends and family event.

For perspective, many high school stadiums seat more than 10k and the record attendance for a high school football game is about 51k.

[ltc8k6]

The attendance at some MLB games is not that much more.

I think Tampa Bay is only averaging 20k for home games this year, and it’s been lower than that in previous years.

I’m sure the regular women’s football games have attendance of more like 2K or so. A little more and they will be close to Arena football. :-)