Brianna Ziegler, girl football player, scores big in Newton

NEWTON — As Newton football players took their positions at the line of scrimmage, an opposing team member shouted out — “Hey, is that a girl?!”

Sporting colorful nail polish, eye liner and a bun, Brianna Ziegler, lineman for the Newton Football team, responded, “What do you think?”

After hearing her voice, the boy cried out, “Oh my God! It is a girl!”

Brianna began playing on the Newton Football team in her freshman year, where she quickly earned the respect from her fellow teammates and coaches. She was promoted to varsity at the end of her sophomore year. She played football all four years, earned a varsity letter and is the only girl to ever score on Newton's football team.

"I'll never forget my brothers and what an amazing four years this was," stated Brianna on her Facebook page, "I'm sad it's over but thrilled that I got to enjoy and play such an amazing sport with some amazing people. You boys are my family and I love you all!"

Becoming a welcome part of the football team was not an easy road. When she signed up her freshman year, her teammates admitted that their first impression was that they did not want her on their team. Brianna said she worked out in the gym every day and put everything she had into the game. Her dedication to the sport is what eventually won the teammates respect and made her a "part of the family."

Parents Jay and Tatiana Ziegler were very supportive of Brianna's decision but expressed concern about how she would be accepted by others.

"My chief concern was that because she was a girl, because she was the only girl, because it was so unusual, that she wouldn’t be accepted on the team, that kids in school would give her a hard time," said Jay. "But none of that proved to be true. In fact, the opposite was true. They were accepting supportive, it was a very, very good experience. She was very much a part of the team. I think maybe in very beginning they may have thought of her as a girl, but after she hit them and she got hit, that changed their minds very quickly."

Jay, Tatiana and Brianna noted they all have never watched football and knew nothing about the game prior to Brianna playing the sport.

"When she first came to me before school started, she said, 'Daddy, do you mind if I play football?' I never even watched it on TV. I said, 'What do you know about football?' She said, 'You throw the ball, and catch the ball, what's there to know?' That was my impression of the game as well. Since then we have learned a lot about football."

"The first scrimmage I went to a kid broke his arm, and that was the first scrimmage I ever went to and I was like (gasp)! And to hear the helmets bounce off each other, it is very scary because I was never at a football game until I went to hers. And to see and hear this was very scary but then you get used to it," Tatiana said. During the games, Brianna always had her hair in a bun sticking out of her helmet, gaining her the nickname of "Troy" after NFL Pittsburgh Steelers player Troy Polamalu — who also has very long, dark and curly hair.

Brianna played lineman and kicker during her games. Although being a kicker was her favorite position, Brianna loves hitting and being hit. Jay said he was worried Brianna would get hurt but not more so than other parents for their children. "Brianna is exceptionally strong and has an extremely high tolerance for pain. Ever since she was a little baby. Her reaction to pain was usually she would laugh."

Tatiana recalled a game where Brianna got hit and flipped in the air. "Everyone went (gasped) and they were all waiting, there was no noise at all and then she got back up and ran back to huddle."

On the field, Brianna received mixed reactions from players who knew she was a girl—they would either hit her hard or not at all.

"Since it was their only opportunity to really hit a girl, sometimes they would go crazy and try to beat the crap out of me, sometimes they would be like, 'I don’t want to hit her,' until coaches yelled and then they would have to. Even with my own teammates from freshman to sophomore year, they wouldn’t hit me. Coach would say, 'You have to treat her the same if she is going to play.'"

Playing a tough sport, such as football, can bring the connotation of being a tomboy, but Brianna said that she considers herself very "girly."

"Freshman year the upper class-men thought, 'We really thought you would be like really butch and strong and just really manly, but you’re really pretty.' I think that’s a compliment," Brianna said.

After games when teammates would shake hands to congratulate each other on the game, Brianna would take her helmet off many were surprised not knowing she was a girl. Then they would ask for her number, said Brianna, laughing.

Even at her football banquet celebrating the end of the season, and the end of her Newton football career, for Brianna, she wore a black dress and high heels.

Since playing the game, Brianna encountered one instance freshman year where some girls told Brianna not to hang around them because they thought football was manly. But since then, she has gained the respect from her team, coaches, cheerleaders and other students at Newton.

"A lot of freshman came up to me this year and said, 'I am definitely playing this year and I am playing because of you.' I say that’s great, but get in the weight room and work out, you don’t want to be the girl on the team that is just the girl on the team and just standing there on the sideline. You have to be part of the football team."

Following in her footsteps, Brianna's younger twin sisters Arianna and Gianna both played football in 7th grade for one season. They enjoyed it but said it wasn't for them.

As Brianna graduates at the end of the school year, she is contemplating playing football for college.

"I wish I played longer, these four years have been the best in my life so far," Brianna said. " I am going to miss football."

— Full disclosure: The subject of this article, Brianna Ziegler, is related to the author of this piece.