The Boys of Fall is also the Girls of Fall for South Plantation High School in Plantation, Fla, as 17-year old Erin DiMeglio earned her spot as the third-string quarterback. After impressing head coach Doug Gatewood as quarterback of the girls’ flag football team, DiMeglio was invited to practice in off-season workouts.
DiMeglio earned a roster position after summer workouts and the confidence of her teammates. In an article in the New York Times, Paladins’ starting quarterback, John Franklin, said. “We’d be warming up, and people would stop over and wait for her to throw to see if she could play, and then they’d walk away like, ‘Oh, they have a girl, and she’s for real.’ ”
While throwing came naturally to DiMeglio, she had to learn to tackle from the junior varsity team.
“Everybody says, ‘What happens when she gets hit?’ ” Gatewood said. “This isn’t a knock on Erin, but she’s bigger than 10 kids on my team. I have a wide receiver that weighs 25 pounds less than her. And the pads she wears are the same as the pads he wears.”
Now that’s a true jersey chaser…
