Girl Kicker Could Be Banned

MCDONOUGH, Ga. -- The McDonough NCC Crusaders have never seen a kicker like this: 14 years old and making 50 yard field goals.

"I've topped out at 50 years," the kicker says with a shrug, "that is pretty far."

The Crusaders have never seen a kicker like this. The crowd watching Friday night's practice explains:

"Most of our boys don't have pink mouth pieces!" "The ponytail, that's how you know."

The star kicker is a girl: freshman Kacy Stuart: "I was playing kickball in 8th grade and my P.E. teacher saw me kick. He thought I had potential, so I played on his football team."

This year, Kacy moved. She is now playing football at the New Creation Center (NCC). It's a private Christian school.

"She's a good kicker. She has a lot of skill, and we're just glad she's on the team," school administrator Judy Foster said.

NCC belongs to the Georgia Football League. The group oversees athletic programs for private Christian schools and home school programs. Earlier this month, the executive board called the NCC coach and said Kacy was not allowed to play because she's a girl.

"I thought this would never happen," Kacy said, "because there's nothing in the rulebook that says I can't play."

Kacy's mom, Angie Stuart, has carefully combed through the rules: "It's just in some of their wording on rules and requirements. All the phrases and all the sentences use "boys". Like "boys ages 14 and up" and so forth, but it never exempts females."

Kacy's parents and coaches are working through an arbitration process. They are waiting for an official ruling. Until then, she'll keep kicking.

"I'm extremely proud of her," Angie Stuart says. "No matter how this goes, I'll always be proud of her."

Kacy says sometimes people ask her why she doesn't play a "girl" sport, or why she's not a cheerleader. "People were built for different things," she said. "I'm built to be a kicker. I just don't understand why people don't accept the fact that I like football and I want to play football."

NCC's first football game is scheduled for September 5th.