Eighth-Grade Girls Tackle Football
Pioneers. Game-Changers. Trail blazers. All of those labels are probably accurate descriptions of Benjamin eighth graders Madeline Hart and Emma Shirzad, but they’re both too modest to admit it.
“I guess too many people just said I couldn’t,” Madeline Hart says, when asked why she wanted to play on Benjamin’s eighth-grade football team.
“I was nervous on my first day of practice, but so were the guys. To be completely honest, my mom was more nervous than I was!”
Shirzad says she didn’t know what to expect and was nervous and afraid of how everyone would react.
Hart and Shirzad are both members of this year’s eighth-grade boys football team.
But they’re not just on the team.
“They’re bruisers,” Middle School Math Department Chair Cathy Hansen says.
The two eighth grade girls have spent this season on the gridiron, holding their own among a team full of male football players.
“A lot of the boys were surprised at first, but overall they were welcoming and supportive,” Hart says.
“When Maddie and Emma joined our team I was a little surprised at first, but then I was very proud of them. It takes a lot of guts for them to step onto that field. This sport is know to be just for men. They broke that barrier this year,” says fellow player Cole Jernstedt.
“We still have a great time all together and we treat them with respect because they are our friends, and teammates,” says Jernstedt. “I’m really happy they joined the team.”
Coach Greg Keller, who coaches the eighth-grade team, says that other than separating their locker rooms, the girls are treated like everyone else.
“You never know what to expect when someone who has never played the game comes out, but they have both done quite well,” Keller says.
Hart and Shirzad join a small handful of women across the country who are playing on predominantly male football teams.
According to the National Federation of State High School Associations, just over 1,000 girls in the U.S. are playing football at a high school level.
Although that number has steadily grown in past years, it’s a sample size that’s less than half the size of the Freshman class admitted to Harvard, as a point of comparison.
This makes the two young women part of an elite group, especially as they started out playing even before high school.
"They're awesome. They catch on pretty quickly. Maddie is just unbelievable. She's really good. Technique wise she's come such a long way. She's the most improved player out there,” Mike Durrette, former 49ers lineman, affectionately known around campus as “Big Mike,” says.
“The kicker Emma, she’s great, she hasn't missed a field goal!”
It’s not just under the lights that the girls have excelled, they’re both great students and are taking high school level math classes, says Hansen.
“They are both intelligent and goal oriented. I believe the girls have proven that all students have the opportunity to try anything in the Middle School, as long as you bring a positive attitude, put forth 100 percent effort and show that you have the grit to persevere,” says Hansen.
When asked whether she sees herself as a role model, Hart is too humble to say yes.
“All I did was be in the right place under the right conditions. I hope I’ve blazed a trail that other girls can follow and expand upon,” she says.
Shirzad says it’s important not to let anyone tell you no.
“If you want do so something like this, go for it! I didn’t join the football team because other people wanted me to. I did it on my own. Girls are tougher than you think,” she says.
Next year, the girls will be facing down another potentially daunting season: Freshman year of High School.
But no one who knows them seems worried about the transition.
Hansen encourages them to continue their journey in both life and football, while Coach Keller says he’s just a phone call away.
“Big Mike” wants the girls to know that they can do anything they set their minds to.
“Overcome fear. Continue to be brave. That’s what you’ve already done.”
Main Address & Lower/Middle School
11000 Ellison Wilson RoadNorth Palm Beach, FL 33408
Ph: 561.626.3747
A premier PK3 - Grade 12 independent, coeducational day school with campuses in North Palm Beach and Palm Beach Gardens. Since 1960, The Benjamin School has provided a challenging college preparatory education to a diverse student body in a structured, nurturing community environment.