Mary Kate Smith may look like the average high school girl but she is anything but average. Not only was she named homecoming queen, but according to Yard Barker, Smith attends South Jones High School in Mississippi where she is the starting kicker for the school’s varsity football team.
Although the team isn’t doing too well, Mary Kate has made all but one of her field goal and extra-point attempts.
Mary Kate has already received a scholarship to Southern Mississippi to play soccer, but she speaks on how this hasn’t stopped her from playing on the field with the boys.
I love it….It’s a competition, so I completely know where all of that is coming from. I love winning. I hate losing. I love competing out there and joking about it afterwards. It’s a great atmosphere.
Mary Kate decided to try out for the football team in the summer and after she made a 40-yard field goal in practice, the coaches were interested.
Any doubts about the community accepting the school’s first female football player were quieted very quickly in an interview Mary Kate’s father had via Today.com.
Jesse Smith said he and his wife, Jennifer, are elated by how the community has embraced their daughter. “Here, in the South, where traditional values are very traditional, we were a little concerned about how well she’d be accepted,” he added. We’ve been pleasantly surprised by the support that the community has shown her. We’ve got a renewed faith that things are equalized for her, and for girls like her.”
Although Mary Kate will go on to play college soccer, she is an example of someone girls can look up to.