Senior Courtney Ahdoot has traded in her soccer ball for a football in this fall sports season.

The Oak Park High School football team was in need of a kicker for their 2016 season. After a suggestion by former football Coach Tim Kenney, Ahdoot became the first female football player in Oak Park history.

“I brushed off the idea as a joke, but [Kenney] was very interested in my pursuit on the team,” Ahdoot wrote to the Talon.

Ahdoot joined the team. However, she was very nervous about doing so.

“I’ll never forget the first time I came out to spring ball practice and the nerves I felt because I was quite scared of how the team was going to react,” Ahdoot wrote.

Many of the other football players on the team supported Ahdoot in her decision to try out as the new kicker.

“Initially, I was surprised, but [I was] also excited because I knew that [Courtney] would be benefiting the team as a kicker,” senior and quarterback Vincenzo Granatelli wrote in an email.

Ahdoot said she feels that she is very fortunate to be on a team where her coaches and teammates are so supportive.

“The bond that I have created with these amazing guys is so special,” Ahdoot wrote. “I feel very lucky [every day] because I get to step onto and share the field with so many talented athletes and incredible guys.”

Ahdoot said she considers the players not only to be her teammates, but also her brothers.

“She meshes really well with the players and I think the players treat her the same way they would with anybody else,” head football Coach Casey Webb said.

Despite the fact that there is a change on the team, Webb said he believes that the dynamic of the team has not changed at all since Ahdoot joined. He believes that Ahdoot’s hard work has rubbed off onto the other players.

“I think she has definitely brought a valuable work ethic that pushes other kids to work harder,” Webb said. “She’s usually the first one to show up and one of the last ones to leave.”

The traditional all-male sport has altered Ahdoot’s perspective of her place on the team.

“I have learned to stop thinking of myself as a girl on the football team and rather as a football player who happens to be a girl,” Ahdoot wrote.

Ahdoot said she is grateful for the chance that the team has given her and for the impact that football has had on her life.

“To have the opportunity to represent strong women is amazing and to be able to play a sport that I have loved for so long is a dream come true,” Ahdoot wrote. “I had no idea I would impact so many people just from following my ambitions and going out to play a sport I love.”