When Myshell Hurse started playing soccer at the age of 6, one day being a girl kicker on a boys varsity high school football team never crossed her mind.
But when Myshell kicked an extra point in the home opener August 20 against Bishop Dwenger, she entered Wayne's history books as the school's first female football player.
"My friend, Aidan (Meek), has actually been hounding me aboue it since freshman years," Myshell, now a senior, tells the Parkview Sports Network. "I was like 'No, I've never done it before.'"
Myshell is an All-Summit Athletic Conference forward for the Generals girls soccer team, and one of the leading goal-scorers in the SAC. Her classmates pushed for her to try out for the football team in desperate need of a kicker, while girls soccer coach Dana Green--who dreamed of kicking for the Wayne football team when she was a student-athlete--made some new in roads with head football coach Sherwood Haydock.
Myshell Hurse earned All-SAC soccer honors as a sophomore and junior,
and has 44 goals in 56 career games for Wayne
"I reached out to him and I said, 'Hey, I've got some girls that I think could kick for you," Dana says. "He said, 'Send them out, and let me see what they can do."
Myshell answered the challenge, showed up to football practice, kicked 9-out-of-10 field goals through the uprights, and Haydock offered her a spot on the team.
"It's very exciting, and they're all there for me," Myshell beams. "(Kicking a football) is literally like kicking a penalty kick (in soccer) for me. That's why it probably came so naturally for me."
"She did not even tell us she tried out until she already made the team," Green adds. "That Friday, she said, 'Coach, by the way, I'm going to be kicking tonight.'"
In her first appearance in pads and a helmet, Myshell hit 3-of-4 extra points in Wayne's 43-27 loss to Bishop Dwenger.
"She has really added to our kicking program this year," assistant football coach Robert Paschall says. "Coaches like athletes who are coachable. Whatever we ask her to do, she does 100 percent."
Myshell's added kicking duties on Friday nights make her a four-sport athlete at Wayne, competing in soccer, football, track & field and gymnastics.
In 11 games this soccer season, she has scored 7 goals and 4 assists (18 points). For her career, she stands at 44 goals and 17 assists (105 points) in 56 games through September 14. She was named 1st Team All-SAC her sophomore and junior seasons.
Myshell qualified for the state track meet her freshman and junior seasons (sophomore year canceled). Last May, she won the SAC championship in the 200-meter dash, long jump and third leg of Wayne's 4x100-meter relay. The Generals would also win the 4x100-meter relay at sectionals; and she was sectional runner-up in the 200-meter dash.
As of now, Myshell plans to go the soccer route in college, and has been recruited by several colleges so far. She intends to be the first Wayne girls soccer player recruited to an NCAA Division I school, Green says.
As a junior, Wayne's Myshell Hurse won the SAC championships in the long jump,
200-meter dash, and 4x100-meter relay (photo: Summit City Sports)
Beyond that, Myshell says some of her soccer teammates have expressed interest in kicking for the football team after Myshell graduates.
"I encourage them to do it," Myshell says. "We're all capabale of kicking a football, since we can do it on the soccer field."
Parkview Sports Medicine is the official sports medicine provider of Wayne High School athletics, partnering with the Generals for athletic training, sports performance, nutrition, athletic rehab physical therapy, and other orthopedic medicine services for hundreds of student-athletes. Learn more at www.parkviewsportsmedicine.com.
written & produced by Eric Dutkiewicz