Zach Woodard is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Ironwood High School for AZPreps365.com.

Since the beginning of sports, women and men have been placed in separate leagues. In fact, it has taken the sports world years and years to create another league specifically for women after they have for men. This is true for the leagues like the NBA, WNBA and college basketball. Even men’s volleyball (a sport that is more commonly associated with women) added an NCAA tournament for their players 11 years before they did for women.

Although men's and women's athletics are split apart, women have proved that they compete with any gender in any sport at any level time and time again. Even in sports that do not have a league specifically designed for women, like football. This is the case for Ironwood’s Sofia Diaz Aguilar, as she proves day in and day out that she belongs on the field just as much as anyone else.

“She works hard every single day. In a completely new environment, she has made strides that I am just really proud of. From a running back and a linebacker perspective, she has made a ton of great strides,” said Eagles head coach Chris Rizzo.

Diaz Aguilar started playing football for the Eagles during the 2019-2020 season and was also a member of the state championship-bound team just a year ago. Now, in her senior year, this is her third and final season suiting up for Ironwood on Friday nights.

“In 4th grade, I just saw all the guys and a couple of girls just tossing a ball around,” Diaz Aguilar said. “I just fell in love with the sport ever since then.”

Prior to Diaz Aguilar, Ironwood had a female athlete on their team before. Victoria "Tori" McMinn (who also played soccer) was a special teams player, more specifically place-kicker, for the Eagles in 2018-2019. Rizzo said that Diaz Aguilar had a different mindset about the game of football than normal female athletes.  

“[Sofia] told me from the day that she showed up on campus that she wanted to play anything but kicker and she has done a great job,” Rizzo said.

Trying something new is nerve-racking enough but being a female coming into a brand-new environment (that is predominantly male) can be a rude awakening. However, Sofia says that she didn’t have to face any adversity while trying to get settled into her new team.

“I think it was pretty welcoming,” Diaz Aguilar said. “Even when I got here with a bunch of guys that I had never seen before, they accepted me with open arms and saw me as ‘one of the guys’ already.”

Seeing female athletes in male-dominated sports is becoming more and more common, especially at the high school level. And now, Diaz Aguilar has started to become a role model for the elementary school girls entering high school who want to play football.

“Some people have come up to me and said ‘I am going to do football next year.’ When we do MyLife Day, I have had some people come up to me and say ‘I want to do football like you,’” she said.

Not only is Diaz Aguilar a member of the football team, but she is also involved heavily around the school in clubs like the student council. She continues to show determination and grit on and off the field and proves that anything a man can do, a woman can too.