Olathe teen hopes to inspire girls to play football
OLATHE, Kan. (KCTV) - Among the sea of blue and black at Olathe Northwest football practice, you’ll find Megan May.
“We tell them not to take it easy on her,” head coach Lorne Clark said. “They treat her just like anybody else.”
May is the team’s only female player.
“I kind of got started in 8th grade after I saw a couple of other girls that were eighth graders in the year before me playing football,” she said. “I saw a couple TV shows and thought it’d be cool.”
Now a junior, May plays wide receiver and defensive back for the Ravens’ junior varsity team.
“It was a little bit hard at first, especially being smaller than everyone else,” May said. “But I picked it up pretty quickly.”
“Hard worker, does her best on the field, and I mean, we just love having her out,” Clark said. “We try to be as inclusive of an environment as we can be. If she wants to come out and play, she wants to practice, then we’ll find her opportunities to play.”
May hopes young girls watching her become inspired to step on the gridiron, too.
“That’s kind of the reason why I love playing the sport and refuse to quit, is that I set an example for younger girls and do what’s against the status quo,” she said. “My message would be for them to try even when things get hard, and not let people put them down.”
After she graduates high school, Megan plans to attend Kansas State University to pursue her dream of becoming a veterinarian.
Copyright 2024 KCTV. All rights reserved.
