One of the guys

By Aaron Coe

Herald Writer

GRANITE FALLS — The quarterback rolled to his right and decided he could run for a first down.

Out of nowhere came a fierce defensive end. The runner was brought down hard before he could even get back to the line of scrimmage.

A play like that happens in just about every high school football game. This particular one was made by Jessie Kinman, a football player on the Granite Falls junior varsity team.

The only thing different about Kinman is the locker room in which she changes.

Yes, Kinman is a girl playing football, but ask anyone — her teammates, coaches or competitors — and they’ll tell you she’s just one of the guys.

"Every now and then some guy from the other team’ll say, ‘Whoa, that’s a chick playing,’" said Kinman, a freshman who began playing football in the eighth grade at Granite Falls Middle School. "Last year, I’d get up on the line and look at them, and they’d look back at me.

"Their eyes would just get huge. It’s pretty funny."

Kinman, who is a team captain, did not miss a play Monday in her team’s 12-0 loss to the Sultan JV team. While some boys came out of the game because of mild injury or physical exhaustion, she was one of the few players on the field for every single play on offense, defense and special teams on the warm, sunny afternoon.

She’s not out there to be a novelty. Her job is to hit people.

"She’s fearless," Granite Falls varsity coach Jim Campbell said. "She starts because she’s earned it."

Kinman is not the first girl ever to play football. But not many play defensive end and line up at wingback on offense, as she does. Many of them have been kickers, and Kinman is, too. Her kicking skills come from playing year-round select soccer for a team in Lake Stevens.

During football season, that means twice a week she goes straight from football to soccer practice. She has soccer games on Sundays and football games on Mondays. On Tuesdays, while her teammates leisurely change and head home when practice ends at almost 6 p.m., Kinman frantically gets out of her practice gear and gets back on the field.

Marching band rehearsal begins promptly at 6 p.m. Her mother, Karen Kinman, brings her dinner between practices. Sometimes her daughter has time to eat some of it. Tuesday she didn’t. She quickly pounded some Gatorade and was back on the field.

Back where she belongs.

"She’s the type that always has to be doing something," Karen Kinman said. "During one season last year, she didn’t have a sport and she drove us all crazy."

Because of her various activities, Kinman often leaves home a little after 6 a.m. and gets home after 8 p.m.

So why play football? Why risk getting injured and interrupting a promising soccer career?

Part of it is to prove people wrong. Though most people have been supportive, some said she wouldn’t be able to handle it.

A couple of hits from a drooling senior and she’d cry and go home, wouldn’t she?

And football became necessary because sometimes soccer is just too soft of a sport. Sure, there’s the slide tackle, but they give out those pesky yellow cards if you just run up and whack someone.

Karen Kinman and her husband, Jerry, were initially reluctant to let their daughter play, but she persisted. Eventually they figured playing football with pads and helmets was probably safer than the way she plays soccer without those protectors.

In a soccer game last year, the opposing coach pulled his players off the field and said the game would not continue unless Kinman was removed from the game. He believed she was too physical.

"I haven’t gotten a yellow card for a while," said Kinman, an A student and ASB officer who rises at 5:30 a.m. twice a week to play in the jazz band before school. "I do get a lot of warnings, though."

To her football teammates, having a girl on the team is not a big deal. Any thoughts of taking it easy on her or wondering what she was doing playing football disappeared when they all played together in middle school. Aside from changing in the other locker room, she’s just another player.

Just No. 70.

Teammates gruffly call her by her last name, the same way they do any other teammate. They smash into her during practice. They pat her on the back when she makes a play and yell at her when she doesn’t.

JV quarterback Charles Sears said it didn’t take long for Kinman to fit in when she began playing in the eighth grade.

"First game, she kicked off the tee, then ran down and nailed the guy that had the ball," said Sears, a freshman. "He bent backwards. I thought she would hit him, but I didn’t know she’d hit him that hard."

Coaches treat her like any other player, though junior varsity coach Josh Lowe admits he still closes his eyes when she takes a hit from a bigger player.

The only differences are the locker room and not being able to sit next to her boyfriend and teammate, Randy Wolfe, on the team bus.

With the exception of a recent complaint about locker room rules, the community has been solidly behind Kinman. Tuesday, according to Kinman, she was told she had to do all of her clothes changing in a separate facility because of a complaint coaches received from an adult. She had been doing some partial changing in the boys locker room along with teammates, but that will no longer be permitted.

Other than that, the ride has been smooth.

When Granite Falls Middle School coaches Doug Engstrom and Joel Montooth learned they’d have a girl on the team, there were some concerns about how the players would handle it.

Those fears dissipated when Kinman fit in quickly and the coaches saw her kick. Solid middle school kickers are rare, which is why a conversion kick is worth two points while a run or pass is worth only one. Engstrom and Montooth believe Kinman has the potential to be a solid varsity kicker.

"She was a very valuable part of our team," said Montooth, who had previously coached a girl on a youth football team. "She probably only missed two or three conversions all year, and she could get in there and hit some guys."

Kinman has never been afraid of the contact.

She craves it.

Even earning a karate black belt at age 9 while living in Alabama didn’t satisfy her hunger to inflict pain. She’ll take on the biggest and baddest varsity players in practice. Campbell will allow freshman to bang against seniors in tackling drills, but does not require it. Kinman is always begging to go up against the big fellas.

"She’s jumped in and gone against juniors," Campbell said. "She got killed, but got right up and hustled back to the end of the line.

"She’s impressive — for a boy or a girl."