As Lindsey Balsley was preparing to enter her senior year, she didn’t plan on adding another sport to her schedule. Balsley already played volleyball, soccer and track at the varsity level.
“All of them kind of give me like a different aspect that I love about them,” she said.
But, when she signed up for Coronado High School’s powderpuff game last year, she didn’t realize it would be the start of sport number four.
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“I was the punter for our team along with wide receiver and coach Hines saw me punt a couple balls,” Balsley said. “[He] seemed to be impressed.”
Kurt Hines is the head coach of Coronado High’s football team. This is his seventh season with the Islanders, but his first with Balsley on the roster.
“As soon as that ball left her foot I was like, ‘dang, she’s got a leg!” Hines said. He said he was asked to referee the game, and took advantage of the opportunity to see if Balsley would be willing to give his team a shot.
“He came up to me at halftime and just made what I thought was a little joke. He’s like, 'we've got to have you out for football,” Balsley said.
She admitted she has thought of playing football before, but when she started to compete and succeed in three other sports, she felt like she didn’t have the time for a fourth sport.
“I didn’t think it would be a reality that I’d actually have the time or the ability to try for the team or even be asked to be on the team,” Balsley said. “And I was wondering if it would be worth it to add something else onto my plate as well as trying to balance my school work.”
However Hines was convincing. Balsley joined the team as #33.
“I asked her if she wants to come try out and, you know, I promised her the same thing I promise all of the young men and women that they have the opportunity to compete and we’re going to pour into them,” Hines said. “That’s it.”
Balsley is one of three girls in the program. There are two girls total on the varsity football team and another girl on the junior varsity team.
“I would say it’s pretty normal being a girl. Obviously not common, but you’re treated normally,” she said. “Everyone here is like super welcoming. There’s definitely no negative energy from the guys on the team. They’re super encouraging. If you mess up, they want you to do better and it’s just like a big family.”
It is an environment that Hines has made a priority to foster.
“We don’t treat them any differently. They don’t want that. They don’t need that,” he said. “They are football players. They happen to be young women but they are football players.”
Hines told NBC 7 that in the past seven years coaching at the school, he has consistently had girls on the roster.
“The only change it really has is if we, as coaches, allow it to be a change,” Hines said. “I tell our staff all the time, you know, if the only thing we do is help our players become better players, we’re failing miserably. It’s our job to build champions, as cliché as that sounds, on and off the field."
When it comes to the future, Balsley is hoping to compete in Division 1 track, but for now she is enjoying being a part of her newfound team and hopes to encourage others to try new things, even if it is not considered the norm.
“If my friends ask me and they said that they want to be on the team, but they were scared, I would tell them 100% go for it,” Balsley said.
