Corona del Sol’s junior varsity football team only lost two games this season, but more remarkable is the fact that there were not one, but two girls on the team.

Sophomores Jasper Schineller and Tierra Thomas suited up and played with the boys, and if anybody has anything bad to say about it, well, you’re going to wish you didn’t.

“No one makes fun of me,” Thomas said. “If they do one of my teammates will stand up for me.”

And that’s that. It’s uncommon, though not unheard of, to have a girl on a football team. So, what made them brave the elements and join the team?

Schineller, the kicker for the Aztecs, said it started out as a classic “I was playing catch with my dad in the backyard,” which then led to kicking the ball.

“It went pretty high and pretty far,” Schineller said, laughing slightly. “So, I guess that’s what started it.”

For Thomas, an outside linebacker, it started out as a joke with her friends because she’s so small at 5-foot-1, but then her love for the game led her to become part of the team.

“I figured it’d be worse to give up and never try than to say I gave it my all and it was not for me,” Thomas said.

So, the girls were on the team and did great, but what about that initial moment when the other players realized, “Oh, this is for real”? Wouldn’t you expect maybe just a little bit of negative feedback?

“At first, it was kind of awkward, and nobody would talk to me,” Schineller said. “Now I’m part of the family, and they all accept me.”

Coach Justin Garman said he didn’t even think about being concerned with a potential negative response toward the addition of two girls.

“I didn’t hear any complaining about it at any time during the season,” Garman said. “The guys treated (them) just like any other teammate from the start.”

The girls didn’t seem to be worried about unfair treatment either, nor do they care for attention.

“I don’t necessarily promote myself being on the team,” Schineller said. “I don’t like the attention. It makes it seem like I did it for the fame.”

As for Thomas, she explained that she’s “just a girl who happens to play football and love it.”

Will we be seeing these girls in pads again next season?

“I’m in love with football and definitely am not stopping this year,” Thomas said.

“I’ve gotten so many questions about that,” Schineller said. “And it does interest me.”

Both of these girls saw football as something they liked and were good at it, and decided to try it. Nobody told them they couldn’t. They knew the risks involved. They could either come out of this with severe injuries, total humiliation, and a newfound hatred for the sport.

Or they could emerge as a kicker who has made 21 out of 24 attempts, and a small linebacker who earned the admiration of her coach because of the way “she will run full speed at someone to tackle them.”

But most importantly, they walked away from this with their teammates as a family – a risk that was worth taking.