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Girls tackling football in the Valley
By Tom Williams
Payton Schnabl has a very unusual accomplishment — she’s a varsity football kicker and Homecoming Queen.
“It was amazing,” said the Youngstown Christian senior of being crowned in a pregame ceremony before the Warren JFK game on Sept. 20. “Complete shock. I was wearing my uniform, so it was different.
“I wanted it to be memorable,” said Schnabl, the Eagles’ placekicker, adding that the night ended up being special because she kicked an extra point, her second.
Schnabl is one of several females in the Mahoning Valley who are playing football this fall.
Columbiana’s Crystal Stone, a 5-foot-2, 115-pound junior, has the most experience on the field. A wide receiver and defensive back for the Clippers’ junior varsity team, Stone saw some varsity action last year (even caught a couple of passes) and has played in two games this season.
“Oh, I was nervous,” Stone said of the first time she went into a varsity game. “As soon as I was out there, it just went away.
“I just don’t think about how much smaller I am than they are. I just do it.”
During varsity games, Stone signals in the formations and sometimes the plays.
“She knows the playbook as well as anyone except our quarterback [Mitch Davidson],” Clippers head coach Bob Spaite said.
Sebring freshman Kayla Hubbs is the Trojans’ placekicker and has been playing wide receiver and defensive back in junior varsity games. She prefers defending.
“It’s fun because you get to tackle people,” the 5-6, 120-pounder said.
Leetonia freshman MacKenzie Garrett is a kicker/defensive back/wide receiver for the Bears’ JV squad. She also has varsity experience. In the Bears’ 48-7 rout of Ashtabula St. John’s in Week 3, head coach Matt Altomare sent his JV team in during the second half.
“It was amazing. Kicking the ball out there, it felt so good to be a girl playing varsity,” Garrett said. “I was in on a couple of tackles and I kicked pretty good.
“The only thing that made me mad was I missed an interception.”
Their coaches admit they weren’t sure what to do when girls approached them about playing.
“I never thought I would allow a girl on the team — ever,” said Spaite, the Clippers’ head coach for two decades. “I’m too much of a Neanderthal.”
Spaite admitted he’s turned down other girls.
“She was persistent,” Spaite said of Stone, who started playing football in the Little Clippers program in the fourth grade. In junior high, Spaite said she was a starting cornerback.
Stone admitted asking Spaite if she could try out was not easy.
“He said, ‘I don’t how this is going to work but if you are serious about it, we can make it work,’” Stone said.
His response took her by surprise.
“People were telling me that he wouldn’t let me play,” Stone said. “I think he feels very different now.”
He does.
“She’s special,” Spaite said. “She takes a shot, she doesn’t ask for any special treatment.
“We’ve talked. I’ve told her, Crystal, you understand you’re really not gonna play? She goes, ‘Coach, I don’t care. I just like it.’ ”
Brian Marrow, Youngstown Christian’s head coach, and Scott Springer, Sebring’s head coach, are limiting how much action their kickers see.
“Not trying to be chauvinistic but I’m always worried about a girl being hurt in a physical game, even if you’re a kicker,” said Marrow, who admitted it was a tough decision adding Schnabl to the team.
Kickoffs are out of the question.
“Kickoffs are dangerous because kickers are live,” Marrow said.
Other issues included facilities for dressing separately and being a distraction to boys.
What won Marrow over?
“When you see her kick, it’s, ‘Oh, maybe she has a shot,’ ” Marrow said. “She’s pretty accurate from a short distance.”
Asked about safety, Springer said of Hubbs, “I’ll never put her in a situation where she’d be overmatched.”
For now, that means PATs and field-goal tries in varsity games.
No plan is perfect. Earlier this week, Hubbs bruised her left arm during a hitting drill in practice. It’s not her first arm injury.
“When I was younger, I broke my elbow [jumping a couch] and both bones in my wrist [after a fall on the ice],” Hubbs said.
Will she be able to kick in tonight’s game against Southern?
“Oh yeah,” Hubbs said. “You don’t need arms to kick.”
Altomare said Garrett is not the first girl to approach him about playing.
“At first, the staff didn’t take it too seriously, mostly because others in the past said they would and then didn’t try out,” Altomare said. “In the summer, she did everything we asked — all the workouts, all the weight-lifting in June and July.
“She never taps out of anything, she always does what we ask,” Altomare said. “I cannot complain one bit because she’s done everything.
“It takes guts.”
So what influences girls to take the risk of playing against boys who are so much bigger and often faster. For three, it’s brothers.
“My brothers played [football] and my cousins,” Garrett said. “At family reunions, they would all be out there playing football in the mud. It inspired me. They were always so happy.
“I tried it once and I liked it,” she said. “It’s just the adrenaline of getting out there, running down the field with the ball and having [someone] chase after you.”
Hubbs said she wants to try out because her brothers [Jake and Zach] played.
“I played soccer growing up and since we don’t have soccer here, I figured kicking for the football team was the closest to it,” she said.
Stone credited her brother Clay.
“I was really close with my brother,” Stone said. “I’d always play football with him in the backyard and stuff.”
Schnabl has a different story. Last season, she was a varsity cheerleader and won a Punt, Pass & Kick competition.
“I started practicing [kicking] with my Dad [Jason] at a field by my house — loved it,” Schnabl said.
They videotaped her kicks to show coaches, earning her a tryout.
Schnabl, Stone and Hubbs have been embraced by their teams. For Garrett, it’s taken time.
“The guys have been great with her, they look after her,” Springer said of Hubbs. “They are the first ones to congratulate her.
“I have a couple of other guys who can kick — they’ve accepted the fact that I let her kick extra points,” Springer said. “She can make them so she deserves to, not that the other guys can’t, but she works hard every day of the week just as they do.
“I want to try and find her a place out there and give her her time for her effort,” Springer said. “I want to show her that I appreciate the time that she puts in.”
“She’s the first girl to score in the history of Sebring High.”
Two decades ago, Nora Clizbe, a lineman, was the first girl to play for Sebring.
Hubbs kicked her first extra point against Windham in the season opener.
“I was real proud of the moment,” Springer said. “Just to see her get in there and nail it right down the middle. It didn’t crawl over the crossbar — she drilled it.”
Altomare said there was “some [resistance]” to Garrett joining the Bears program.
“Our upperclassmen and senior leaders really accepted it,” Altomare said. “As for the guys in her grade, they’re all fighting for positions and playing time. [They’re] a little more competitive is the way I’d describe it.”
Colton Gudat, a Bears senior captain, said, “Some of the guys really didn’t like the thought of having a girl on the team. But the seniors were all right with it.
“She works hard at practice, just like everybody else does.”
Garrett doesn’t hold a grudge.
“Put yourself in one of the guy’s shoes — would you want a girl playing your sport, thinking, ‘Oh, she’s going to cry every time she gets hit.’ Or you can’t hit her.
“I told them multiple times: ‘Hit me, hit me as hard as you can.’ You know what? They do and I’ve never shed a tear in front of any of them.”
Not surprisingly, moms were the hardest to win over.
“My Dad [DeWayne] was all for me going out,” Garrett said. “He used to tell my Mom [Lori]: ‘Let her go out there, let her see how hard it is, let her cry, let her experience it.’ ”
Hubbs said, “My Mom [Theresa] didn’t want me to play in junior high, but I talked her into it.”
Her dad, Jamie, Hubbs says, “is supportive.”
Same for Stone’s parents (Clay and Donna).
“My Dad was all for it,” Stone said. “My Mom was nervous about me playing.”
Schnabl understands.
“My Mom [Megan McEntire] was worried, but she’s behind me,” Schnabl said. “She loves it.”
Sports matters to all four. Springer said Hubbs runs cross country and plays AAU basketball.
Schnabl plays on Youngstown Christian’s girls soccer team. She practices after school with the football team then goes to soccer practice or games.
Stone plays softball in the spring.
Garrett said she has given up her other sports.
“My volleyball friends weren’t happy with me,” Garrett said. “I quit all my other sports because I wanted to dedicate all of my time to football. They were mad at me at first but [now] they are right there behind me.
“I’m grateful for all the support.”
Hubbs’ range for field goals is about 30 yards, Springer said.
Springer said Hubbs’ future could include a bigger role.
“She needs to build up more strength to kick the ball off, to get it deep enough to where we want it to be,” Sebring’s fourth-year head coach said. “I can see by the time she’s a junior or a senior taking on more roles in the kicking game, possibly even punting the ball.”
Marrow said he’d be willing to let Schnabl try up to a 35-yard attempt. Her nickname is “Automatic.”
Schnabl said she’s thankful for her rare opportunity.
“I had to learn to get along in a different environment,” Schnabl said. “Now, I’m more comfortable with the team. They are like a second family.”