The Courage of Children: Boston and Beyond XXXIII

MARINA STANDE
BONNIE HICKEY, TEACHER
Barnstable Intermediate School, Barnstable, MA
Picture being the only girl on an all-boys team.
Courage to me is when you face your fear while managing to do something
brave, and when you can push yourself through hard or scary times.
My story happened at my old school, Barnstable United Elementary in
Barnstable, Massachusetts, during fifth-grade recess. I saw my friends, Jameson,
Luiz, Rian, Oliver, Anthony, Brady, and Tutu.
“IT TAKES COURAGE
TO PLAY A SPORT LIKE
FOOTBALL, BUT I WANT
OTHER GIRLS TO KNOW
THAT THEY DON’T
HAVE TO BE SCARED TO
PLAY A ‘BOYS’ SPORT.”
I was on the walking track, where every day, I would watch them play football.
I wanted to play, but I didn’t want to ask. At some point, I decided to ask some
of my friends who were girls if they wanted to play football with me. This was
courageous because I faced my fear and was able to do something I was scared
to do. At first, they all said no except my one friend, Aatalia.
Aatalia and I would play football every day and practice. Until one day, one of
my friends, Luiz, said I had gotten really good at football. He invited me to play
with him and our other friends. After that, my friend Aatalia wanted to play
with us, so we let her.
Soon after that, more and more girls wanted to play football. To me, that made
me feel proud, because I know that it can be scary asking the question. Girls
might feel like the boys will make fun of them, but when another girl is playing,
I feel like they might have more confidence to ask.
Since fifth grade, I’ve been playing football all summer long. I play with
Aatalia, Brady, Oliver, Jameson, and Rian at the HYCC, which is the local
youth community center, or at my friend Brady’s house. I’m either joining flag
football or tackle football. I feel great about playing football as a girl. It takes
courage to play a sport like football, but I want other girls to know that they
don’t have to be scared to play a “boys” sport. I recommend playing flag
football first if you have never played football before. The reason you should
play flag football first is because you might not know whether you like it or not.
It will also give you the skills to play tackle football.
THE COURAGE OF CHILDREN: BOSTON AND BEYOND
VOLUME XXXIII
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