Kick Like A Girl

The Conner High School band strikes up the fight song and the Cougars take the field. You can’t put your finger on it immediately, but something looks a bit out of the ordinary for a Friday night game in Kentucky.

And then it hits you. In the sea of blue and white jerseys, a long, blonde ponytail spills out from under a soon-to-be sweaty football helmet as its owner jogs to the sideline. It swings left to right across the number 84, and you immediately assume it’s one of the boys who thought having Troy Polamalu’s hairstyle would make him more manly. But then someone sitting close to you mentions that the feminine locks belong to 17-year-old Olivia Brock, the Cougars first-string kicker and the young woman whose extra point accuracy has shifted the phrase “You kick like a girl” from insult to compliment.