Pueblo West's Alex Smith looks to change the mentality around football
Football may come easy for some or even most high school students, but not for Alex Smith.
Smith is originally from Oklahoma and was raised to root for Oklahoma State. Since it was a big football town, it was ingrained in Smith’s upbringing to be involved in the sport.
Fast forward several years, and after a few other kids were added to the family, Smith ended up here in Pueblo, more specifically in Pueblo West. After many years of trials and tribulations, Smith was a full-time active participant on the varsity team at Pueblo West High School. This may not seem like much of a big deal, but it is for Smith — she was the only girl playing football in Pueblo this past year.
For years, Smith enjoyed playing football and was introduced to it at such a young age.
“My brother and my dad, they always used to watch it growing up and I grew up in Oklahoma and so it's a big football town there,” Smith said. “Turns out I'm an Oklahoma State fan. But it was about third grade, I wanted to try something new. I've done basketball, I've done soccer, I've done all the 'girly' sports, and I was like, ‘You know, I'm going to do football.'”
Smith played for a few years down in Oklahoma before relocating with her family. Eventually, she was able to get settled in for a long enough period to pick the sport back up at Pueblo West.
While attending West, Smith tried out for the football team in her sophomore year. She made JV, but that wasn’t good enough for her.
More: Pueblo Central loses to Northfield in first round of 3A state football playoffs, 56-36
“It was like an addiction. I craved it and I didn't get to play my middle school years because we were moving so much, so it was kind of hard,” Smith said. “I didn't play my freshman year but I got out here my sophomore year and I just didn't really rock the boat too well. I didn't come off too strong. My junior year I came out here and I told everybody ‘It's going to be my year. I'm going whip some ass.’ They didn't believe me, and I went from getting a really bad heartbreak to using that as motivation and I just went from there.”
Smith eventually started to see some action on the varsity roster near the end of her junior season, and as a senior, she made the varsity roster. What's even more impressive in all this is that Smith is playing wide receiver.
When most girls play tackle football at the high school level, they primarily come out and try out for kicker, or punter. Rarely do you see them come out for a position that involves them getting hit and getting hit hard, at that.
“I did have a lot of people who doubted me,” Smith said. “From ‘No, you're not going to make it,’ or ‘They're going to take you down,’ or ‘You're not going to get back up’ or ‘You're not going to want to get back up’. My response to all that was 'No, that's not who I am.' I don't take no for an answer. I'm going out there and I'm going to show you what I'm made of. Also, I'm not going to be a kicker, because I can't kick for the life of me.”
Smith went on to say that she does understand that there are some physical limitations to her game on the field that she cannot compete with. But what she lacks in physicality she makes up for with mental fortitude and resilience.
“I'm not going to say I'm fast, but I can move and I've played catch all my life with my dad,” Smith said. “Having that weight on my shoulders of people thinking you're not going to be able to do it or make it, that you aren’t going to catch the ball because you're a girl. I've been told, you're not good enough, you're not fast enough, you're not strong enough. I mean, yeah I may not be, but I can go out there and try my hardest. I'm going to make my stand on the team if that's what it takes. I take it as motivation and not like a negative comment.”
Motivation is a big thing for Smith, not only in getting her to overcome some of the negative comments she’s faced in her life to achieve the opportunity to play football, but it is also something she hopes to inspire in a future generation of girls that may want to play football.
“I guess one thing I can say is that I'm doing what no one else does,” Smith said. “Proving men wrong. I mean they think that this is their field. Well, I'll show you how much it's your field. I think more girls just need motivation. They need to get mentally stronger because I'm the only girl in the locker room. I don't get to go out there and get hyped with the boys in the locker room. I got to get hyped on my own.”
Smith went on to say that, yes you have to deal with some disgusting stuff on the football field and being around the boys as athletes, with "smells" and "guy talk", but Smith says that you have to just get over that and move on if you really want to play.
More: Pueblo West, Rye both knocked out of CHSAA state tournament on day two
She also gave advice for future girls who want to get into football and challenge the norm of football only being a boys’ sport.
“Just be yourself, do what you love, and don't let anyone drag you down,” Smith said. “If that would have happened to me, I would have been gone my freshman year. I wouldn't have been here; I wouldn't have the motivation. I just wouldn't be here. Just don't let anybody get to your head. It's your mentality that's what it starts with. You can't be physically strong if you're not mentally strong.”
Christopher Abdelmalek is a sports reporter for the Pueblo Chieftain and can be reached at cabdelmalek@gannett.com or follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @chowebacca. Support local news, subscribe to The Pueblo Chieftain at subscribe.chieftain.com
This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Alex Smith looks to bring more female athletes to the football field
