Conant's Rodriguez getting a kick out of being a female football player

A long, light brown pony tail shoots out the back of her helmet.

And sometimes, Gracie Rodriguez brings her homemade chocolate chunk cookies to practice for her teammates.

Otherwise, Rodriquez is just like one of the guys.

And the guys on the Conant football team treat her like it. She is, after all, an important part of the team.

Rodriquez, just a sophomore, is the Cougars' starting kicker.

"I really like to bake, and I like to make cookies for my teammates," Rodriquez said. "Especially for my snapper and my holder. They're really important."

Rodriquez, all 5-foot-6, 135 pounds of her, has been important, too.

She's made 17 of 19 extra points so far this season, and last week in a 31-6 win over New Trier, Rodriquez hit the first field goal of her varsity career, a 21-yarder.

"Gracie has been very consistent and coachable," Conant head coach Bryan Stortz said. "She has a great work ethic and is dedicated to her role on the team. Yes, she is only a sophomore, but she continues to work and improve her skills every day.

"The team needed a reliable kicker and whether it was a boy or a girl, it really didn't matter," Stortz said. "The boys understand the importance of the position and they just want someone who can do the job. It's just been the case that (lately) the best kickers have been girls."

Rodriquez, a longtime soccer player and a freshman on the varsity girls soccer team at Conant last season, follows in the shoes of Jess Smeltzer, also a standout on the girls soccer team. Smeltzer was the Conant football team's kicker last season.

As a freshman last year, Rodriquez went to an early-season football game and noticed Smeltzer doing the kicking. She was inspired to give it a try herself.

"I had heard of Jess through soccer and when I went to that football game, I thought it was so cool and awesome that Jess was doing the kicking," Rodriguez said. "I wasn't playing a fall sport, and I was thinking that I really wanted to be a three-sport athlete because I play basketball, too. So I went home and told my dad that I wanted to kick footballs. I thought I could do it, but I watched some videos first and then he and I went out to a park near my house that has goal posts and we started kicking."

Rodriguez made her very first kick right through the uprights.

"It was weird, definitely different than kicking a soccer ball," Rodriguez said. "There were some adjustments, but I caught on pretty quick. That first kick wasn't very good but it did go through from about 20 yards out. And it felt pretty good. It made me feel like with some practice, I could kick footballs too."

So Rodriguez talked to the freshman football coach.

It was already a few weeks into the season, but the Cougars were still without a kicker at that level. So Rodriguez had herself the job.

"My first game on the freshman team last year, I kicked one extra point, and it was good," Rodriguez said. "I got a lot of help from Jess (Smeltzer) last year and by my last game, I was 4-for-4 on extra points."

Confident and suddenly inflicted with the football bug, Rodriguez wanted more. She was intent on becoming the varsity kicker for the 2019 season.

"Being a part of the team, playing in front of so many people, it's a huge adrenaline rush," said Rodriguez, whose field goal range is from about 35 yards out. "And the guys are so great. Everyone is really supportive and positive, especially my holder (Matt Botello) and my snapper (Walter Pedro). My holder always gives me a big high-five when I make a kick and he'll say, "Atta girl!" And everyone hits my shoulder pads and helmet when I do something good. The guys have been great."

Having girls on the team is a tradition that dates way back to the 1990s at Conant.

Soccer star Jen Grubb, who went on to play at national power Notre Dame, became the kicker of the Conant football team before graduating in 1996. She was the first female to score points in a varsity football game in the state of Illinois.

Then the Cougars had Drew Wentzel kicking in 2015. Then came Smeltzer and now Rodriguez.

"I think because it (a female kicker) has been done before here, it inspires younger girls to be part of the team," Stortz said. "Jess was a superstar to my two oldest daughters. They would always ask me how she was doing and if I thought that they would be able to kick like her someday."

Rodriguez, whose first idol was soccer legend Mia Hamm, whom she met at a fundraiser when she was about 10 years old, also dreams of kicking like a popular superstar someday.

Carli Lloyd of the U.S. Women's National team that won the World Cup this summer, was seen about a month ago in videos on social media kicking a 55-yard field goal at a Philadelphia Eagles training session, prompting some NFL teams to float the idea of giving Loyd a chance to kick in a preseason game.

"Seeing those videos of Carli Lloyd, I just thought it was so cool, and it makes me want to be as good," Rodriguez said. "For her to get offers to join the NFL, it made me realize that maybe I could do the same thing. It made me realize how far I could go with this if I really worked at it.

"Playing football, it's so unique for a girl, and that makes me feel really proud. I mean, I'm really doing this. I wasn't sure when I first started that I'd be good enough. But I'm doing it and it's an accomplishment and it feels good being around a bunch of people who really want to see me succeed."

pbabcock@dailyherald.com

Follow Patricia on Twitter: @babcockmcgraw