Leilani Armenta, a freshman at Jackson State University (JSU), was the first female player to score in a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) football game. This achievement will pave the way for female athletes in the predominantly male sport as Leilan’s rising fame makes her a role model for many.
Armenta grew up in California and began her football career during her freshman year at Saint Bonaventure High School. Throughout her four years playing in high school, she made 98 out of a total of 105 extra points as a kicker.
In addition to football, Armenta played on her high school’s soccer team. Just before her senior year, Armenta suffered from a torn anterior cruciate ligament. This, however, did not stop her; she was still kicking for her team despite her injury.
Following her surgery, Armenta was forced to take a break from football. Yet, nine months after her surgery, when all the other kickers on the Jackson State University football team got injured, she stepped up and subsequently began her career with the JSU football team.
August Groh (II), a captain of the BLS varsity football team, notes, “Kicking at the college level is very challenging, regardless of gender. I believe that she inspires other young female football players, [and] they have an idol they can look up to.”
While she was familiar with kicking a football because of her strong foundation from high school, the newfound fame in collegiate football was unfamiliar.In an interview with Bradley Davis of WAPT-TV, Armenta shared her feelings about the pressure of kicking: “There’s always these what ifs, but I just felt like regardless of the type of kick I did, the media was going to be on me because of being a female for the first time at an HBCU.”
She proved her resilience, nevertheless, by choosing not to let what people say regarding her and her position bother her, focusing instead on putting points on the scoreboard.
In a JSU game against the University of Arkansas Pine-Bluff, Armenta kicked a point after a touchdown in the second quarter and added two more points in the fourth quarter, cementing her as the first woman to score in a game for an HBCU in a National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I (D-I) Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) college football game. Her team won the game with the score of 40-14.
“Many against women’s sports argue that women can’t do things men can, but it’s important to understand that athleticism and skill are not limited by gender,” comments BLS varsity football player Preston Musoke (I). “I think there also needs to be a shift in the way fans of sports think. Media and people have to learn to support women based on their abilities rather than their gender.”
When Armenta made the historic kick as the first woman to score in a game for an HBCU in an FCS-college level football game, her teammates and coaches were ecstatic. The audience was both shocked and impressed by such accomplishment, before erupting in cheers.
Dory Russell (I), BLS varsity captain of sailing, a traditionally male-dominated sport, adds, “I have seen a lot of efforts to achieve gender equality in sports globally such as equal pay campaigns, increased media coverage, representation in leadership such as Leilani Armenta and new policies supporting professional women athletics.”
Leilani Armenta, as a woman in a male-dominated sport, faces criticism from the media but breaks down new walls for women in football daily. Her teammates and coaches keep supporting her growth and Leilani continues to show women how to get out of their comfort zones and break society’s norms for women in male-dominated sports.