14-Year-Old Removed From High School Football Team ... Because She's a Girl

If you are going to discriminate against someone, and I'm not advocating that you do, mind you, you should probably lie about it. Sure, that's compounding evils, but at least you're not going to get fired and then summarily sued for sexual discrimination.

Female Placekickers

Kacy Stuart was left in tears after the executive board chairman of the Georgia Football League ruled that she could not join the New Creation Center's football team. "He said she can't play simply because she's a girl," Stuart's mother claims.

Kathy Jefcoats, Atlanta Journal-Constitution / ajc.com

Stuart has had some experience playing football. She was the kicker for the Union Grove Middle School football team that went to the state finals last year. The 14-year-old is not the first women to play football, in fact some have played football at the collegiate level.

Kathy Jefcoats, Atlanta Journal-Constitution / ajc.com

Heather Sue Mercer, seen here kicking field goals during spring practice in 1995, tried out for the Duke football team. She sued the university, claiming she was cut from the football squad solely because of her gender.

The Herald-Sun, AP

Mercer was awarded $2 million in punitive damages by a federal jury in 2000.

Gerry Broome, AP

Katie Hnida became the first woman to score in a NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision game. Hnida scored two extra points against Texas State University in the fourth quarter of a 72-8 New Mexico win in 2003.

Jake Schoellkopf, AP

Before she was the placekicker for the University of New Mexico, Hnida was a walk-on placekicker at the University of Colorado. In 2004, Hinda claimed she was sexually molested by her teammates and raped by another while at Colorado. While no charges were ever filed, Colorado head coach Gary Barnett was fired as a result of his comments and the fallout from the scandal.

Jake Schoellkopf, AP

As a Jacksonville State sophomore, placekicker Ashley Martin became the first women to play and score in an NCAA football game.

Dave Martin, AP

Martin, seen here in 2001, kicked three extra points in the Jacksonville State Gamecocks' 72-10 victory over Cumberland University.

Dave Martin, AP

Liz Heaston, seen here in 1997, scored two extra points for Willamette (Ore.) University in a game against Linfield College and became the first woman to play in a college football game.

Paul Kitagaki Jr., The Oregonian / AP

Heaston was a standout player for the school's soccer team, and was recruited by football coach Dan Hawkins to fill in for the injured starting kicker.

Paul Kitagaki Jr., The Oregonian / AP

Which is what will probably happen to Hank St. Denis, executive board chairman of the Georgia Football League, after he kicked Kacy Stuart off of the New Creation Center football team in McDonough, Georgia. Because she's female.

The 14-year-old high school freshman from Spalding County learned Thursday night - while team pictures were being shot - that she was being booted off the field. But her mother said she isn't going down without a fight.

"We'll file for an injunction if we have to," Angie Stuart said Friday. "We'll do whatever it takes to keep her on the team."

[...]St. Denis overruled New Creation's decision to let her join the team.

"He said she can't play simply because she's a girl," Stuart said.

When she heard the decision, Kacy cried.

And it gets more awkward because it's not like she lacked the sufficient talent to be there and was just trying to make a statement -- she helped take her public middle school team to the state finals last year and had local high schools fawning over her for her kicking services, if that's even allowed.

The truly embarrassing thing is that private schools, while holding the ability to be a little more discriminatory, should generally be more progressive in these matters because they're not governed by the government's laws.

So to see someone set everyone back about 10 years just because he has power and doesn't think that girls should play football, well, that's pretty irritating. Not as irritating as a sexual discrimination suit, but still irritating.

Gracias, TZ.