| Tuesday, February 9, 2010 |
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Alice Blair dons her pads and uniform alone in the tiny girls locker room at Paint Creek High School.
As she heads outside to join her Pirates teammates, she endures whistles and catcalls from members of the Lueders-Avoca six-man football team. She glances back briefly and flashes a halfhearted smile but doesn't slow her step.
"Jerks," she mumbles as she leaves the building.
Paint Creek, about 170 miles southwest of Dallas, had the last word against the Raiders, winning 44-19 on a recent Saturday. Playoffs for Texas' six-man football championship begin next weekend.
The 15-year-old Blair is among a handful of high school girls who, because of dwindling enrollment in rural districts, are playing six-man football this season so their schools can field a team. Ariel Blair, Alice's younger sister, played earlier this season but decided to leave the team several weeks ago.
The sisters aren't alone. In Megargel, about 60 miles northeast of Paint Creek, as many as three girls have played for the team this season after some of the boys were ruled academically ineligible.
Statewide, 113 schools compete in six-man football, which originated in Nebraska in the early 1930s and came to Texas a few years later.
"They think it's not right, and they think I'm disgracing the school," said Blair, who is 5-foot-3 and 159 pounds. "But all the guys and the other girls cheer me on."
Gov. Rick Perry attended Paint Creek – he graduated in 1968 – and said there were plenty of "very good female athletes" at his time, though there were enough males to round out the team without them.
It's different now, though, with the community's population dropping and the girls capable of contributing, he said.
"It's that old proverbial good ol' college try, in this, good ol' Paint Creek try," Perry said. "Those young ladies are just carrying on the tradition of good team spirit."
Alice Blair played last year as a freshman but didn't see much playing time because there were more players on the team, first-year Pirates coach Russ Wilson said. When this season began, Paint Creek had five boys for its six-man team. The Blair sisters boosted the roster to seven.
After several games, Ariel Blair, a freshman who participates in basketball, golf, tennis, track and cross country, left the team.
"I just didn't feel I was good at the sport," she said. "It was harder than any others."
Wilson doesn't ease off on Alice Blair, who played every down in a game earlier this fall because the team didn't have enough players to substitute. The roster size has fluctuated between six and eight, Wilson said.
Teammates don't cut her any slack, either.
"They expect the same out of her as they would any other teammate," Wilson said. "She always has a good attitude. She goes as hard as she can."
The sisters' mother, Ann Blair, said her eldest daughter was a junior varsity cheerleader before she came to her last year and said she wanted to play football. Ann Blair was supportive but didn't think her daughter would last.
"I've always told my daughters they can do whatever they put their minds to," Ann Blair said. "Every time she goes on the football field, I pray to the good Lord that she won't get hurt. It's a very tough game."
She, too, hears negatives about her daughter. The comments come from parents, "But I don't pay attention to it anymore. Of course, she's not as tough as the boys, but she's really getting a lot better."
For Alice Blair, the chance to play football has earned the respect of teammates.
"As long as I practice real hard and do what's expected in games, they think it's awesome," she said.
