When Gracie Compton was a seventh-grader last year, a few boys were trying to tell her what girls could and couldn’t do.
One of those things she was supposedly unable to do was play football. So this year, Compton is proving them wrong.
“Last year during seventh grade, there were a bunch of guys that said, ‘Girls can’t do this, girls can’t do that. They belong in the house doing all the chores,’” Compton said. “So I decided to just come out here and show them that girls can do other things.”
Compton not only is playing for the eighth-grade team at Northside Middle School, she is a starting offensive guard. Another girl, Savanna Sullivan, is playing for the Spartans’ seventh-grade football team.
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Now, Compton says her male friends and teammates respect what she is able to do on the football field.
“They encourage me a lot,” Compton said. “They were like, ‘If girls can go out and play football, we can do house chores.’ It’s been pretty fun being around this amazing group of guys that are really supportive of what I want to do.”
Compton, who played basketball in sixth grade, is in her first year playing organized football. She plans to play football at either Columbus East or Columbus North next year.
Besides starting on the offensive line, Compton has seen a little action for a 2-3 Northside team at nose tackle and defensive tackle.
“She had started out on defense, and then we just found out that she had more of a knack for blocking,” Northside eighth-grade coach John Riley said. “That’s one of the things that we like about her — she’ll get one (defender) and keep looking for more. She’s always looking for work.”
Riley said when practice began this summer, Compton was finishing at the back of the pack on the team’s warmup lap around the track. Now, she is beating several other players.
“I told her I would treat her like everybody else, and that’s the one thing that I know that’s the one thing that appreciated from me — to not make any exceptions for her,” Riley said. “She’s earned her own way onto the starting offensive line. I’d love to see more wins than losses, but every day that I come out here, and I see somebody get better, that’s how I win.”
Unlike Compton, who is a relative newcomer to the sport, Sullivan has been playing organized football for five years. She began playing PAAL football in second grade and has continued every year since then.
Sullivan hasn’t noticed a huge difference playing seventh-grade football.
“It’s a little bit harder this year, but it’s basically the same as PAAL,” Sullivan said. “They’re a little bigger, but it’s not that bad. Mostly every year during PAAL, I played line, so it’s a little bit different going from blocking people to catching the ball.”
Sullivan has been starting at wide receiver and outside linebacker for the Spartans, who are 0-5 going into tonight’s game at Seymour. She is one of only 11 of the 30 players on that seventh-grade team that have previous experience playing organized football.
Coach Scott Ousley also has used Sullivan a little bit at safety, running back, fullback and tight end.
“She’s really knowledgeable about the game,” Ousley said. “She works hard on fundamentals and just really is a technician when it comes to details. She’s smart. She’s always in the right place at the right time. I’m comfortable in a game situation putting her about anywhere.”
Ousley said at this point in the season, Sullivan blends right in with the rest of the team. He said it’s almost like they don’t have a girl on the team, but have another football player with them.
Ousley called Sullivan a leader, who is always in the front of the line and not afraid to jump right in and learn and take a hit.
“They all respect her,” Ousley said. “They see her as just another player. I think maybe at the very beginning part of the season, doing some drills, they might have been a little hesitant of going full-go against her, but once they saw she can take just as much as she can give, that’s not a thing now. They see here out on the field during games running around and making tackles.”
Sullivan also plays basketball, softball and a little volleyball and considers softball her No. 1 sport. She is uncertain about playing football in high school.
So far this season, Sullivan has made several tackles on defense and has caught one pass on offense. She hopes to score a touchdown a some point.
“It’s been pretty fun,” Sullivan said. “ I like it, and it’s just active, and it’s contact and I like contact sports. I’ve had a lot of playing time — more than I expected to since there’s so many more kids than there were in PAAL. But all the kids have been nice to me and accepted me.”
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”Girl Power” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
Name: Gracie Compton
School: Northside
Grade: Eighth
Year playing football: First
Position: Offensive guard, defensive tackle
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Name: Savanna Sullivan
School: Northside
Grade: Seventh
Year playing football: Sixth
Positions: Wide receiver, outside linebacker
[sc:pullout-text-end]
