Federal Way middle school girl owns football at three positions

Published 11:47 am Monday, November 30, 2015

One 12-year-old girl is making her mark on a Federal Way football field in three different positions, and showing her teammates a thing or two about playing defensive tackle, center and kicker.

Hannah Boober is a student at Sacajawea Middle School and has been playing football for one year. As the only girl on the first string team, Boober leads the team in tackles. She is also a member of the wrestling team and track team.

When Hannah made her first appearance on the football field, one boy said that he wanted to crack her.

“I was like, OK,” Hannah said. “Then during the training, we do a practice that two people line up, and just go heads on. I hit this kid so hard that he fell back and couldn’t get up.”

Melissa Smith, her mother, is also surprised by her daughter’s performance on the football field.

“When she told me she was going to play football I was supportive,” said Smith. “But when I was actually watching her first game, I was really nervous and scared, thinking whether she would get hurt. Then I saw her out there and she was actually the one who unintentionally hurt other people. I feel better now knowing that she is strong. When she fell down she would always get up.”

Her opponents even think she’s a boy at times.

“When I was on defense,” said Hannah, “we blitzed, so we went up to the line. There was someone who said something like ‘get him.’ I looked at them and was like ‘I’m a girl’. And he was like ‘oh I’m sorry.’ And they treated me way differently. On the last game, this guy he tripped over me and he started apologizing.”

She still hopes to be treated as a regular player.

“I’m still on the team, it doesn’t make any difference because I’m a girl,” Hannah said. “They should know I’m a girl but that shouldn’t change how they treat me on the field.”

There might be some small awkward moments being the only girl on her team, but that’s not a problem for Hannah. She has a lot of friends on her team to talk to. She changes in the girls’ locker room with girls from other teams. And if she wanted access into the boys’ locker room to talk with her teammates, she just knocks on the door.

“When we were playing against varsity, there was one guy who pulled down another guy’s pants,” she recalled. “He was supposed to tackle from the waist, and he grabbed the other guy’s pants and pulled them down. That was probably the awkwardest thing. But other than that, there was nothing awkward for me.”

At first, Hannah just played defensive tackle. Later, the offense needed some big players to block, so she started to play center. After she won the competition for starting kicker, she became an all-round player who plays offense, defense and special teams.

“It’s really a good feeling,” she said. “Because the teammates will cheer me on or say something good because I just stopped a person from getting a touchdown. And I feel that I am a game-changer.”

Hannah is still a 12-year-old girl when she’s not on the field.

“On weekends, me and my friends will make plans and go hang out,” she said. “Like go to the mall and go see a movie. I just saw ‘Goosebumps’ on Wednesday, it was pretty good.”

Cindy Boober, Hannah’s grandmother, revealed that what motivated her granddaughter to play football was her desire to strengthen both her body and her mind.

“She wants to be a doctor,” Boober said. “We heard this a couple years ago. She understands that if she uses all the muscles in her body, that will strengthen her mind, too. We are so proud of her.”

To see Boober in action, visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Za0-VyLZtNc

Article by Yiqin Weng, UW News Lab