By Ella Meaker
Eighth-grader Lily Waddell sprints across the field and gets open for a pass. The ball flies right to Lily. She catches the ball and runs as fast as she can to score a touchdown!
Middle-school flag football is back after a two-year hiatus. When browsing through the different middle-school sport options, Lily said, “I’m going to join football this year, that will be fun.”
Although she was the only girl on the team and it was challenging at times, she persisted and continued to play her hardest.
She says, “This year was the first year I was able to play football on a team. I am very grateful that I was able to play for TPA because the previous year I was not able due to Covid-19. I had tried in 6th grade but the pandemic made it so there were not many contact sports being held. I tried to play football in 7th grade but TPA ended up not having enough players for the middle school team. I was very relieved that I was able to play football before high school. I am not quite sure if I will be playing in the fall next year. But I am still glad that I was given the opportunity to play this wonderful sport with all my friends. I really had an amazing experience playing football. Currently, I am playing soccer for the middle school girls soccer team, which I have played the past two years.”
If you want to be included in our next middle-school “Athlete Spotlight,” make sure to reach out to Newspaper Club’s Instagram page @tpadeequitibus.