Missouri girl breaking barriers in her high school football program

By Joe Frollo | Posted 6/29/2015

Football is nothing new for Brooke Liebsch. The 14-year-old from Liberty, Mo., has spent the last six years playing Pop Warner, learning the sport and developing her skills.

This fall, Brooke will become the first female quarterback in Liberty North High School history when she steps between the white lines as a freshman.

Her approach is simple: Play her best and help her team. She doesn’t see herself as any different than her male teammates – and neither do they.

“She plays like everybody else out there,” freshman receiver A.J. Wood told Fox4KC.com. “She works out like us. Nothing different about her, I guess. She’s a part of the football team.”

In 2014, more than 1,700 girls played high school football at 448 schools across the United States, so Brooke is not alone in her desire to play a traditionally male sport. This spring, an all-girls football league in Utah became what’s believed to be the first of its kind in that all the players were female.

Still, Brooke doesn’t want to be thought of as special – just as a member of the team. She is working hard to earn playing time just like every other incoming ninth-grader.

“Girls can do anything a guy can do,” she said. “Girls can be just as strong as a guy. There’s a lot of them that play football.”

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