Megan Joyce
Executive Producer of the Ram Review
Take one look at head football coach Lou Marinelli’s roster, and you will notice one very distinct addition taking on the role of kicker this season. Junior Brianna Valente has done what no other female has done at our school before: scored a point at the varsity football level. With seven extra points already converted on the season, Brianna is giving Rams football fans a good reason to cheer for number 91.
The story began in Mr. Marinelli’s gym class last spring, during which Brianna, a sophomore at the time, caught the eye of the Rams head football coach.
“I had Brianna in Phys. Ed class and I knew she was a soccer player,” Mr. Marinelli said. “I could see she had a really strong leg. And, going into our year, I really didn’t know who our kicker was going to be. So I said, ‘Hey, Brianna, why don’t you go out and give it a try?’”
Brianna, encouraged by Mr. Marinelli’s suggestion, began to express interest at home in trading in her shin guards for shoulder pads. However, Brianna’s mom, Michaela, admits that Brianna’s decision to try out for the football team caught her whole family by surprise. “It was the first I had heard about it from her,” she said. “She normally plays soccer. I knew that to be asked to play football for the Rams was a big deal.”
Nevertheless, her family assured Brianna that she had their full support. Throughout the summer, they made the now-familiar trip up to the Water Tower fields at Waveny, where Brianna would kick, run, and do conditioning in preparation for her first Ram Football tryout. She was the only female to come out for the team and, consequently, the only female to make Mr. Marinelli’s final roster.
However, once on the team, Brianna still had to earn the respect of her teammates.
“I was concerned about being accepted by everybody because I didn’t know how [the team]would take it,” Brianna reflects. “Maybe they would think it was a stunt or I was just trying to make some kind of statement. Being a part of the football team was just very intimidating at first. I am a shy person who normally wouldn’t try out for something as different as this.”
To her relief, Brianna discovered her teammates and coaches to be “very inclusive and accepting.”
As the season moves forward, Brianna is settling into her role as kicker. However, she acknowledges that this decision has moved her in an entirely different direction both on and off the field. “[My experience] has definitely pushed me out of my comfort zone, which is something I don’t normally do,” she said. “I am now more a part of the school than I normally would be. I wasn’t really that into football before, but now, I’m at every game.”
About two and a half months into the season, Mr. Marinelli still remains confident in his decision to put Brianna on the team. “I have no reservations, whatsoever,” he said. “As a kicker, as long as Brianna can get the ball through the uprights, that’s really all we care about.”
He also commented on the personal effects he perceives the experience will have on Brianna. “I think, in the long run, when she gets done with this whole experience, she’ll be better off and be able to handle a lot of different things in life,” he said.
Despite the fact that the team has played nine games already, Brianna’s mom still gets nervous about watching her daughter take the field. “At one JV game, there was a fumble from the hiker, and Brianna didn’t know what to do”, she said. “She’s just standing there, and I’m like ‘get out of there! Run the other way!’ That was something she had to talk to Mr. Marinelli about, because that had never happened to her before. That time I was nervous because [the other team]doesn’t care who’s in their way. They’re going for the ball.”
At first, Mr. Marinelli wasn’t sure if Brianna would be the starting kicker. “We had some guys who looked like they were a little bit stronger and little bit more adept, but as things happened and as the year went on, she kind of leapfrogged ahead of them. Right now, she is the starting kicker,” he said.
Brianna’s consistency on the field is perhaps the single most important factor that has earned her the confidence of her coaches and teammates. She is 7 for 7 in her extra point attempts, averaging 1.4 points a game.
Senior captain Geoff Young echoes Mr. Marinelli’s praise. “At our game against Seymour, Brianna went 5 for 5 in her extra point attempts. Based on her performance recently, I believe she will be the starting kicker for the remainder of the season,” he said.
Meanwhile, Brianna’s mom, like any proud parent, is thoroughly enjoying watching her daughter kick her way into New Canaan football history. “I admire her for her determination,” she said. “She’s working very, very hard, just as the other players are, to show them that she’s just like one of them and she isn’t ‘special’. She’s determined, she’s doing a great job, and I’m very proud of her.”
The glare of Friday night lights is starting to become less intimidating for the once self-admitted, non-football fan. “At first, I would constantly be thinking about just getting [the ball]through the uprights,” Brianna said. “I still do that, but now I am getting more accustomed to the crowd, the lights, and being under pressure situations. I am more able to focus, clear everything out of my mind, and pretty soon, I’m just kicking the football.”
Scoring one for female athletes, one extra point at a time.
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