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[Lynn Burke]

Hope Mills wants to user her soccer skills in football. Photo by Rob Ostermaier/Daily Press

Determined to play
By Jason Jordan | jjordan@dailypress.com

Hope Mills sat all by herself in the girls locker room at Tabb High, tired and frustrated.

She'd been there for 10 minutes and hadn't made any strides in trying to figure out what pad went where in her pants and what hook went into which socket on her shoulder pads.

"I was sitting there lost," Mills said. "But I just kept on trying and I figured it out. I didn't want to ask for help. I never gave up on it."

Three weeks later, with the same determination, she's figured out a way to earn a spot on Tabb's football team and become the first female kicker in the Bay Rivers District since Smithfield's Liz Nehme played back in 2002. Mills is also the only female player in the district this season.

"I just wanted to play football, nothing deeper than that," Mills said. "I'm not trying to prove anything and I'm not trying to get attention or make a statement, I just really love to be on the team. Some people can't understand that."

Initially, even her best friend Sarah Plum was shocked by the news.

"We do everything together," Plum said. "When she told me she was trying out, I was like OoooK. That's one thing we definitely can't do together. But it's cool, she wanted to do it and she did. It doesn't matter that she's a girl."

Mills is certainly not an oddity.

There have been more than eight girls to play in the district since 2000.

"Liz was really good," Smithfield athletic director Miles Blount recalled. "She scored 35 points that season (2002)."

Mills' idea to play came about after learning that the Tigers would be in need of a kicker, with Justin Naramore graduating.

She figured since she had a strong leg for the Tigers during soccer season, she'd see how it worked in the fall.

Mills approached Tabb coach Matt Lawson in early June about being Naramore's replacement, but Lawson had heard this before.

"Every year, a girl comes up to me and tells me she's coming out," he said.

"I don't mind, I just tell them to come on out."

Mills, a senior, started showing up for summer workouts and practiced her extra-point kicks off to the side while the football team ran seven-on-seven drills.

Slowly the players migrated over to the short, skinny — 5-foot-3, 125 pounds — girl that was booting the ball through the uprights.

Finally, when the guys asked her what she was doing there, Mills simply replied, "I'm going to try to be the kicker for Tabb. They were like, 'Oh really?' They wanted to see if I would actually show up for two-a-days."

She did, but it wasn't easy.

She ran seemingly hundreds of long sprints and had to go through grueling stations that test endurance in 95-degree heat.

It was the toughest thing that I've ever had to do," Mills said.

"I think that two-a-days are meant for guys' bodies and we're built differently, so that was hard. At the end of the day I was mentally, physically and emotionally worn out. I had to work harder than all of them to show them that I really wanted this."

Tigers' linebacker Dominic Jeter noticed that Mills was struggling through her first two weeks but said it was necessary for her to respect what football players have to go through.

She's got a better idea of what we do now, and she respects us for it," Jeter said. "We all respect her. By the time we were finishing our two-a-days, she was doing better than some of the guys."

An even more impressive feat since Mills, a three-year starter on Tabb's soccer team, was also practicing with the Virginia Rush, her club soccer team, after football practices.

The grind caught up to her a week ago when she tried to kick a 40-yard field goal in practice and strained her right quad that kept her out of the Tigers' scrimmage against Denbigh on Aug. 17.

"I was just excited standing on the sideline," Mills said.

"It was cool to be out there with my teammates with the game going on. It was pretty sweet."

She had the same enthusiasm on the first day of hitting drills.

Lawson paired her with the junior varsity defensive backs because their size was the most comparable.

"I just said 'Alright let's go," Mills said.

"We had to do a few different tackling drills and, yeah, it hurt, but it was fun. I just remember being on the ground. I prayed before the drills. I wanted to do everything that the guys were doing."

That means on and off of the field.

Typically, the players hit up the local Taco Bell after practices, and Mills tags along and joins in their conversations.

"I hear some of everything with these guys," Mills said. "I still do girlie things like talk about boys until 3 a.m. and shop with my girlfriends, but hanging with my teammates is cool because I can offer the female perspective."

Jeter said: "That comes in handy. We treat her just like one of the guys now."

Lawson thought it was important for Mills to be involved in all aspects of the team, especially the hitting drills, since the possibility of being hit while kicking extra points is likely.

"She's going to take a hit sooner or later, if she's going to be on the field," Lawson said. "But she was fine with it. As a kicker, she's pretty accurate. She does a good job with it. She'll compete with our other kicker."

Mills added: "I can't wait until I make that first one."

At Thursday's practice, Mills was 12-of-12 overall, including four straight 30-yarders

But her first in-game make will have to wait at least two weeks.

Mills missed four practices to attend a church mission in Mexico, and as a result will serve a mandatory suspension for the Tigers' opener against Grafton on Aug. 31.

Linebacker Corey Pikes will take over the kicking duties for that game.

I had to go on the mission, but at the same time I'm a football player and I have to abide by the same rules," Mills said. "I completely understand."

That's the approach Mills' mother, Jennifer McNeil, wanted her daughter to take once she learned that Mills wanted to tryout.

"She's a part of the team and is under the same guidelines as any other player," McNeil said. "I applaud my independent, determined daughter for trying new things. I was fine with it from the beginning. My mom wouldn't let my brothers play because she didn't want them to get hurt. I don't want Hope to get hurt, but I'm not worried about her getting hit."

That's the least of Mills' worries, too.

In fact, she's hoping that before the season is over a team will breakthrough the line on one of her kicks and give her the opportunity to make a play.

"I asked coach if they get through could I pick it up and run it in and he said I could," Mills said.

"Then if Jeff (Schurott), our quarterback, takes the hold and runs, I can throw him a few blocks. That would be cool. It would hurt, but still it would be cool."

[Graftonkid34]

Who are the other kickers at tabb are they any good?

[Buckeyein_VA]

TJ Ryan and Corey Pikes...TJ kicked well at Middlesex..

[Graftonkid34]

Thats good whats his percentage? does he miss any?

[muscles20]

he's good from what i hear. hope's the 1st string kicker for PAT's and tj does field goals but tj isnt playing in the first 2 games so corey is kicking for the grafton game. hows grafton lookin this year without thaxton? i can't wait to see what the grafton tabb game is gonna look like. don't know who i'll be rootin for, but should be a good game

[Graftonkid34]

i talked to a friend and they said that hes been the starting pat kicker he said hes also working on punting and doing kickoffs

[raiders]

i had read in the paper about the Warwick kicker and how he did well at combines and how he was ranked best in the state so i figure i go out and watch the Warwick practice and there kicker is pretty good. He made a 60 yarder at practice last week and he can punt the ball well also averaging 40 + yards. So does that girl not start for tabb? Who should win the bay rivers district this year?