Adrian Carbajal is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Red Mountain High School for AZPreps365.com.

“Three steps back, two to the side, breathe and kick.” 

Those are the words that Red Mountain High School kicker Shekaina Rigrish lives by during football season –  words that keep her focused with all of the pressures that come with the Friday Night Lights. 

You would think that being a multi-sport athlete and involved in multiple clubs on campus would be stressful, right? 

How about being the only girl in a football program with over 180 boys? Still no?

OK, then surely having to make crucial extra points for one the best teams in the state which also has championship aspirations has got to make any person's stomach churn?

“Not Shekaina,” Red Mountain coach Kyle Enders said. “She's got a very short memory. She never gets too high or too low and this year she’s been amazing for us.” 

That short memory has served her well this season as the senior is kicking 18-for-18 on extra point attempts, which ranks her seventh in the 6A division and 26th in the state of Arizona. 

“It’s a lot of fun to watch her play,” Lou Rigrish, Shekaina’s father, said. “I just knew she could be good at it. So when she said she was thinking about maybe joining the team, I emailed the coach and the next day she was out on the field.”

Walking into practice being the only girl of course made her anxious, and even she admitted that some of her friends on the team thought she was there by mistake. 

But after the first day, she knew she belonged on that field with the rest of the team and worked tirelessly to get better. 

“She's always trying to find ways to improve her craft,” Enders said. “All of that hard work she put in over the offseason really paid off and it shows in her confidence on the field.” 

That confidence has been shown throughout her varsity career where she kicked crucial field goals and extra points in last season's playoff games, both of which were wins decided by one point. 

That confident mentality is what differentiates kicking from most of the other positions in football, because in her mind, “being a kicker is all mental.” 

“You just have to make sure you’re not nervous because when you’re nervous you make mistakes,” Rigrish said.

Not only does she quiet those nerves while kicking, but she does so whenever her team needs her to make a tackle. 

“Honestly, making a field goal or extra point attempt is way more stressful than making a tackle to me,” Rigrish said. “All of my tackles are during kickoffs, so I can see them from a mile away. Kicking happens so quickly that the tiniest mistake will cost you.” 

Those tiny mistakes can be magnified on the field, and although she is confident in her abilities, she credits her team and coaches for making her job on the field easier. 

“I think our football team is so respectful,” Rigrish said. “There's some schools that I've been shocked by, but our school’s different. The guys have become like my brothers and they’ve never made me feel left out or different just because I’m a girl.” 

However, being a female kicker, for Rigrish, isn’t just about being one of the boys or challenging societal gender norms, but simply to get people to normalize seeing girls as football players. She wants people to know that girl kickers shouldn’t be seen as uncommon occurrences anymore, and she encourages any girls thinking about lacing up their cleats to give it a shot.  

“Go for it, 100%,” Rigrish said. “It feels great to hear other girls ask me about football and for them to tell me that they are interested in playing themselves. I always tell them, ‘What are you going to lose?’” 

“I just wanted to see how it was and I ended up loving it.”

Kicking is the only time Rigrish feels truly at peace in her busy day. To her, there’s never any pressure in kicking because it's something she loves doing. It’s her opportunity to just get away from her busy life, block out all of the outside noise and be in her own zone. 

“There's a place that you reach before you kick where you have to breathe and ease all your nerves. When you get to that place you feel it and then you just kick,” Rigrish said. 

With the regular season coming to a close and her team fighting for a playoff spot you can be sure that the words “three steps back, two to the side, breathe and kick” will be words she lives by for the rest of the season.