The harsh afternoon sun and pervasive heat attacked Ava Muylle’s (11) senses, but neither of them could break her attention from the game in front of her. Breathing heavily, she crouched into position, bracing for the other team’s offensive rush. The players sprinted forwards and she locked eyes with the boy in front of her, grinning as his eyes widened at the sight of a girl playing against him.

Though Muylle is not the first girl to play football at Westview, as of right now, she’s the only girl on the otherwise all-boys JV team. In her first year on the team, she said she loves the competition against other schools, and while Muylle said her gender hasn’t affected her relationships with her teammates, it adds to the experience of the away games because she gets to play against strangers.

“Honestly, my favorite part of the whole playing experience is when the other team looks at me and realizes I’m a girl or straight up asks [if I’m a girl],” Muylle said. “It’s really funny to see [their] reactions.”

Muylle began her football journey in rugby. For a little more than a year, she has enjoyed rugby and grown as an athlete. Although she thought about joining the football team throughout, the idea remained in the back of her mind. 

Her first encounter with playing football was at the Battle of the Classes game last spring, where her combined team of sophomores and juniors won the competition. Despite this, she initially had no plans to pursue football beyond that specific event. However, at the end of the year, a notice for Westview’s football summer camp caught her eye and she decided to give the sport a shot.

“I heard they were doing a summer camp, so I just [signed] up,” she said. “It was a lot of fun, and we did a lot of conditioning and an intro to football. There were a lot of other people who were new too. [We found out] who was going to do what on the team, and it was pretty much just about finding your place.” 

Muylle found her footing during the summer camp and decided to continue the sport through the fall season, even though she learned she would be the only girl on the team. Through the summer camp and the various practices since, she has been able to get used to football conditioning and coaching; however, it wasn’t an entirely new experience for her, which made it easier to adjust. 

“I did CrossFit for a couple years, which is basically just a sport of conditioning and weightlifting,” Muylle said. “[With the football team] we have a lot of coaches and they all coach us in different ways, but all of them are great and they balance each other out. Sometimes it’s more intense, but it’s not a drastic difference [compared to what I’ve experienced].”

Due to the vigorous conditioning and training the players go through for several hours per day, five days a week, they spend a lot of time together outside of games. Through these shared experiences, Muylle said that she was able to bond with her teammates.

“We all got super close because we go through the whole practice experience, the whole conditioning experience, the whole getting yelled at experience together,” Muylle said.

Despite her initial anxiety over being the only girl on the team, she was able to quickly grow close with her male teammates, through activities such as practices, games, and even events outside of school such as team bowling.

“I was worried about the dynamic at first, but once we got into more of the season, it was a lot of fun and we all connected,” Muylle said. “Now I have a ton of friends on my team.”

Over time, she said has learned what playing positions work best for her in the game. Unlike most football players, however, she plays on both the offensive and defensive lines and switches between the left guard and left interior, respectively.

Both positions have several overlapping skills, which allows her to switch seamlessly between the two sides. Though she doesn’t often come in contact with the ball itself, her defense role is crucial as she prevents the other team from breaking through the defensive formation and takes the impact of the rushing opponents. Meanwhile, in her position on the offensive line, she clears a path ahead for whoever has the ball to rush through and gain ground. 

“The way you can think of it is [the left guard] makes the path for someone to be able to run the ball forwards or make a pass,” Muylle said. “You get to [run up and] hit people, and it’s so much fun.”

Her experience on an all-boys team has been positive so far, but Muylle said she doesn’t think football is a sport that everyone would enjoy. However, she believes if you enjoy contact sports or things like weightlifting, football might be for you. 

“I think it really depends [on the person] because football is definitely not for everyone,” she said. “But it’s super fun and anyone who wants to try it should.”

With several games behind her so far, Muylle said she plans on continuing football throughout her senior year to keep improving as an athlete.