High school cheerleader hopes to make history as a college football player
Hope Nelson is a lifelong dancer who took up cheerleading in high school. But in her senior year at Indian Creek High School in Trafalgar, Ind., she decided to try a new challenge: instead of cheering at football games, she wanted to play in them.
So she did. She became a defensive back, playing in both varsity and junior varsity games. And now as a freshman at Franklin College in Franklin, Ind., she’s a student coach on the Franklin football team. But she wants to be more. Nelson told the Indianapolis Star that she wants to make history as the school’s first female football player.
Hope’s journey to football
Being a woman isn’t actually the biggest obstacle Hope has had to overcome on her path to football. As she told the Indianapolis Star, she lost the sight in her right eye at age three when she ran into the metal prong from an exposed doorknob. And she hadn’t even considered football until she’d torn her ACL twice while cheerleading in her junior year.
Usually it’s the other way around — after a serious injury or two, a football player decides to try different pursuits. But Nelson isn’t like most people. Her parents said that the injury that cost Hope the sight in her right eye turned her from a quiet child to a “spunky” little girl. So no one was truly surprised when she said she wanted to try football.
“That is when I decided I want something to challenge me,” said Nelson. “And so I went to football and loved it ever since.”
Hope and her dad (who admitted to USA Today that he was a little scared at the thought of his daughter playing football) met with the high school’s football coach, who told them that she could play if she wanted to. However, she’d get no special treatment — she’d be treated the same way as all the guys on the team. That was exactly what Nelson wanted to hear.
Just one of the guys
On her high school team, Nelson was just one of the guys. No one treated her any differently and she was even allowed in the locker room — except in “certain situations,” of course. She started making inroads at Franklin in her senior year when she interned with football coach Mike Leonard, who raved about her “tenacity.”
Nelson isn’t actually playing with the Franklin team yet. She’s a student coach, and she already has tremendous respect from the players. Here’s what senior defensive back Bryan Wells told the Indianapolis Star about Hope:
“I was like, ‘Man, is she playing football or is she coaching?’ I wasn’t really sure,” he said. “When coach Leonard told us she was coaching, I thought it was pretty cool. She is a great coach. She supports us all.”
Nelson’s an involved student coach who takes her job seriously, but what she really wants to do is play. She’s practicing and working out with the team, and while she may be smaller than your average college football player, but she’s got strength. From the Indianapolis Star:
At 5-5 and 155 pounds, Nelson can hit.
There was the practice where one of the players didn’t recognize it was Nelson and she pummeled him.
“And he was like, ‘Whoa, I didn’t realize that was you and you could hit that hard,'” Nelson said. “I’m a lot stronger than a lot of people think I am.”
Nelson is aiming to play next year as a sophomore. If she does, she would be the first woman to play for the football team in the school’s 184-year history. But she knows that her journey toward that goal can help inspire young girls — and all kids — to overcome obstacles that might seem insurmountable.
Nelson hopes her spirit and what she’s doing open a lot of people’s eyes.
She thinks often of young girls going through tough times, as she did. Children who might have a goal that seems unreachable, as she did.
“I’d tell them, ‘Chase after it,'” she said. “You have to go after your dreams.”
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Liz Roscher is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at lizroscher@yahoo.com or follow her on Twitter at @lizroscher.
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