Jordan Mann feels like one of the guys on the Skyview football team.
But she’s not one of the guys. She’s the only girl.
“Honestly, I’ve been very surprised with how accepting the guys have been,” the senior kicker said. “Like I haven’t heard one guy speak out about having a girl on the team. I kind of expected at least one guy to have a small problem about it. But they’ve all been super supportive, cheering me on the sidelines. Just overall, good guys.”
Mann, a three-sport athlete at Skyview, decided to change her third sport for her senior year to football, after playing soccer for 13 years.
“After I started kicking the football, I found out that I loved it a lot more than I did soccer,” Mann said. “To be honest, soccer was kind of a way to get closer to my dad because he played soccer growing up. So I thought playing soccer would bring me closer to him, and we’d have this bond. Turns out he really didn’t care that much when I decided to stop playing soccer. He loves that I’m doing football.”
The idea of giving football a try started in Mann’s sophomore year after watching some Skyview boys soccer players handle the kicking duties for the football team.
“I was like ‘that looks really fun. I think I could do that.’ ” Mann said.
It helped that Skyview football coach Steve Kizer was also Mann’s throws coach on the track and field team.
“She mentioned to me that she’d like to try football,” Kizer said. “And I said ‘heck yeah. Come on out. We’ll need kickers next year.’ ”
Mann began practicing kicking a football a year ago before the pandemic hit. Then during the lockdown, it became her release activity.
“It just sort of became my safe space,” she said. “You know, you’re living with your family for the next several months non-stop, so it was kind my place to get away from my family a little bit, go out and kick a couple of hours, then lay out in the sun.”
Kicking a football is a lot different than kicking a soccer ball, Mann said.
“The football is shaped differently, so you have to hit it differently,” she said. “And in soccer, it’s more about finesse. You’re trying to place it somewhere. And you’re hitting it differently each time, trying to get it to different spots on the field. Football, it’s more like a golf swing. You’re just trying to get the same swing every single time.”
Mann, who shares kicking duties for the Storm with junior Fedya Henrichs-Tarasenkov, converted two point-after-touchdown kicks in last week’s 51-0 win over Prairie.
“Yeah, it was crazy,” Mann said of kicking in game situations. “Everyone is out there screaming at you. Coaches on one side are going ‘Block it! Block it!’ And the guys are on our side ‘You got this, Jordan!’ And I’m just screaming on the inside a little bit. But then you kind of find peace in the chaos a little bit.”
In addition to football and track, Mann also wrestles at Skyview. Given that the 4A/3A Greater St. Helens League plans to run wrestling and track seasons simultaneously later this spring, Mann may be forced to choose one. She still hopes there is a way she could do both.
“Most seasons, I’d be playing soccer, but then I’m also doing club track or I’m getting in shape for wrestling,” she said. “It’s been years since I haven’t been doing more than one sport at a time. I usually do two sports at a time. So doing wrestling and track at the same time would be normal for me, I guess.”
Kizer has no doubts than Mann can do anything she sets her mind to.
“She’s one of these kids who is always out there first,” Kizer said. “In track, she’s the first out there throwing discus. In football, she’s out there early kicking.”
Mann appreciates her new teammates and coaches on the football team, in particular, Kizer.
“He’s the No. 1 hype man out here,” Mann said. “You’ll see him with his arms up, telling me to go kick a PAT. He has so much energy. He’s a nice breath of fresh air.”
Having Mann on the team is a novelty, but Kizer added it doesn’t feel new or different.
“I’ve never had a girl kick for me,” Kizer said. “But honestly, I sometimes forget I have a girl on the team. Especially this season, when we aren’t using the locker room, she’s just another one of the guys.”
