Title IX ensures equal funding for men’s and women’s sports and has done wonders in creating opportunity for female athletes since being enacted in 1972. But sometimes equality in sports doesn’t have to entail separate leagues.

At least not for Becca Longo of Basha High School in Chandler, Arizona.

She recently became the first woman ever to earn a collegiate football scholarship at the Division II level or higher. After signing a letter of intent last week, she’s officially set to kick for Adams State University in Alamosa, Colorado next fall.

Take Action: Sign the Petition to #LevelTheLaw and Empower Women and Girls Around the World

Her parents were sleeping the night she received the email with her scholarship offer:

“I remember […] seeing the email and busting through my parents’ room, dogs barking all over the place, just screaming, ‘I did it! I got it!’ It was so exciting. I was holding back tears,” she told ESPN.

The excitement was in no way related to the historic significance of her achievement – Longo didn’t even know she had broken a glass ceiling until her high school football coach, Gerald Todd, announced it on her signing day.

Longo’s ecstasy was purely an athlete learning she received a college scholarship – which is exactly how her new coach sees the situation, too.

Read More: First Woman to Complete Boston Marathon Does it Again 50 Years Later

“It was like recruiting any other athlete,” Adams State coach Timm Rosenbach, who played quarterback professionally for the Arizona Cardinals, told the Arizona Republic. “To me, there is no doubt she can be competitive. She has a strong leg, and she can be very accurate.”  

“I see her as a football player who earned it,” he said.

Earned it, indeed. Longo’s ride has been far from smooth.

After kicking for the junior varsity squad at Queen Creek High School in Arizona, she had to sit out her junior season after transferring to Basha. She also suffered a back injury that threatened to end her athletic career.

Now, she’s a two-sport collegiate athlete – she’s also playing basketball at Adams.

There have been a handful of other female kickers in college football before, SB Nation reports. Liz Heaston, for instance, was the first woman to score in a college football game for Willamette University in Salem, Oregon in 1997. Katie Hnida was a walk-on at the University of Colorado before transferring to the University of New Mexico. There, she became the only woman ever to score in a Division-1-A game, kicking two extra points (Todd’s brother was an assistant coach on that team).

Read More: Only Saudi Woman to Climb Everest Urges Country to Let Women Play Sports

Though female football players have primarily been kickers, there are a few who have played skill positions and who have done battle in the trenches of the sport.

In 2014, Shelby Osborne became college football’s first female defensive back for Campbellsville University in Kentucky.

Holley Mangold (whose brother Nick Mangold played center for the New York Jets) played offensive line for Archbishop Alter High School in Kettering, Ohio. She was the first female to compete for an Ohio State Championship, but left football to pursue weightlifting. She excelled in that sport too, competing at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

While Longo’s scholarship is a victory at the collegiate level, the fight for athletic equality in professional sports rages on.

Venus Williams, for instance, spent years fighting for equal champions’ purses at Wimbledon, one of four major professional tennis tournaments, a battle she finally won in 2007.

A year ago, the US Women’s National Soccer Team campaigned for equal pay, citing the fact that they played more games than the Men’s National Team and had a better record. Five players made an official complaint to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Last March, they struck a new labor deal with US soccer which will pay them more and offer better travel and hotel accommodations.   

Most recently, the US Women’s National Ice Hockey Team threatened to boycott the World Championship unless they received equal pay and equal treatment as their male counterparts. They won their fight – and then won the tournament.

Which victory is more significant is up for debate.

Read More: 10 Reasons Women Need Equal Pay, and Are Still Fighting For It

Though Longo isn’t world-class (or at least not yet), she did convert 35 of 38 extra points last season and hit a 30-yard field goal. She’ll no-doubt help an Adams State team that hit 5 of 8 attempted field goals last year.

But this story isn’t about statistics or standings. Longo is joining a new generation of female athletes proving they can compete with the boys, and earning scholarships to boot.

Perhaps the future of football is female, too.

TopicsGender Equalitywomen and girlsEqual PayFootballNCAA

News

Demand Equity

This Athlete Is the First Woman to Earn a NCAA Football Scholarship

By James O'Hare