Lawtell Elementary Is Making History with Two New Players

Lawtell Elementary is making history with two new players on one of their school teams.

Two young ladies, 13-year-old Maddison Dabney and 12-year-old Ja'Vonnia Reese have joined the football team. It's the first time the team has had females according to a report done by KLFY.

The two girls say they want to play, and they want to show that they have what it takes to play this game.

Dabney said during her interview,

Football is a competitive sport, and I could show y'all that girls could play it too. It's not just a boy's sport.

Reese says she's always heard that football is a boys' sport. She said during her interview,

This year they decided to let girls play so I'm going to prove them wrong.

Dabney says after seeing her older brother play football she has always wanted to do it. When she found out they were going to let girls on the team, she said she knew that she was tough enough to play the sport. Now she is on the team. She says her brother was the one who told her she should try out for the team.

Both girls are playing offense and defense as linemen.

Assistant Coach Jason Jordan says nothing changes as far as how the team practices and plays games.

He says,

Both of the girls that we have on our team, they both rose to the occasion. they did everything that we needed them to so we are proud of them and we know that they're capable of playing out there with those boys.

Both girls say they are super excited for this season and they are on the team to stay.

Another assistant Coach Tyler Williams says the girls work just as hard as the boys, and he says they take instruction just like their counterparts, and sometimes even better than the boys.