Brooklyn Kirkpatrick: A clawing, fighting Tiger

Ashley Hunter
ECB Publishing, Inc.

She's only 14 years old, and she is already making Jefferson County history.
Brooklyn Kirkpatrick, the daughter of Elizabeth Kirkpatrick and granddaughter of Charles “Chuck” Kirkpatrick, is an eighth-grader at Jefferson Somerset High School and the only female member of the Jefferson Tigers football team.
“I've always enjoyed playing sports,” said Brooklyn. “But I never really believed I could go out there and do it with the guys until recently.”
Her beloved 'Papa' – Chuck Kirkpatrick says that the subject of Brooklyn playing football was an unexpected surprise.
“It really just came out of the woodwork,” said Chuck Kirkpatrick, who is a fan of football, but his family has never been extensive football enthusiasts.
In fact, when Brooklyn first broached the topic, Kirkpatrick was less than ecstatic about agreeing to let her play.
“I kinda just said no. I said 'you could get hurt.'”
But Brooklyn kept insisting, and Chuck Kirkpatrick says that she grew up memorizing the Bible verse Philippians 4:13, which reads: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
Armed with the verse and her belief that she had what it took to play on the field with the boys, Brooklyn finally convinced her family to allow her a shot at trying out for the team.
“I told her to speak with Coach Smith,” Kirkpatrick said.
After Brooklyn went to the Tigers' Head Coach, she was given the coach's approval to join the team – if that is, she could get a parental signature giving her the permission to try out.
“Coach Smith asked me, 'are you sure about this?', and I said no. But it was what Brooklyn wanted to do, and I supported her,” said Kirkpatrick.
So Brooklyn was allowed to participate in this year's spring training leading up to the Tigers' Spring Game, and that, Kirkpatrick says, is when the first and only glimmer of doubt appeared within Brooklyn herself.

After seeing the boys who she would play alongside, and realizing she had not trained for this prior, Kirkpatrick said that his granddaughter hesitated – but he wouldn't let her quit; she'd gone this far and, if only for her own benefit, he wanted her to finish the spring training at the very least.
However, after completing the spring game, Brooklyn was hooked.
“She's a hard worker and she's worked hard,” said Kirkpatrick of his granddaughter. It took Brooklyn awhile to earn her gear during the spring training, meaning she couldn't spar or practice with any of the boys who had their gear. Not one to be deterred, Brooklyn practiced with the coaches and earned her gear later into the spring session.
Outside of practicing alongside her teammates, Brooklyn put in extra work to perfect her game on the field. After two hours of practicing, her male teammates would leave the field – but not Brooklyn.
“Me and her, we'd be down there practicing by ourselves,” said Kirkpatrick.
After the Spring Game, when she could've easily said that football wasn't for her and thrown in the towel, Brooklyn's momentum kept going. She spent the summer months conditioning and weightlifting, and Kirkpatrick says that she managed to gain a lot of muscle.
Already standing at around six feet, Brooklyn Kirkpatrick was quickly becoming a force to be reckoned with. By the time that the fall football season rolled around, Brooklyn was already getting the hang of the game.
“Coach Smith says that she has better techniques than some of the boys,” Kirkpatrick says proudly of his girl. Unlike the boys who grew up playing football in the backyard or park with their friends or relatives, Brooklyn was new to the game and its rules. Some of the athletes that appear on the Tigers' roster have had to unlearn 'bad habits' that have hindered their game – but Brooklyn was a blank slate for her coaches to mold and model into the perfect athlete.
“She's very coachable. She never complains. She picks up fast,” added Kirkpatrick.
Coach Leroy Smith, the Head Football Coach for the Jefferson Tigers, agrees: “I'm very impressed by not just her play on the field but by her willingness to come out here every day and compete with the guys. She's an inspiration to me and I know she's an inspiration the guys.”
Her goals were realized when she was drafted on the team as Tiger #70.
According to Chuck Kirkpatrick, their expectations for Brooklyn's first year on the team was not to see her score any touchdowns or making any winning passes, but just to see her grow and learn and experience what it was to be a part of the Tigers team.
But Brooklyn is hungry for more. The athlete has had experience playing soccer and volleyball and now dreams of making the list of Big Bend athletes, although she does admit that the dream may require some time to fulfill.
According to Kirkpatrick, his granddaughter yearns for more time on the field, though he feels like the limited amount of time that she is given is due more to the fact that she's an eighth grader, and would technically be a Junior Varsity player, rather than the fact that she's a girl.
“She has good days and bad days on the field – but boys do too.”
The is new grounds for everyone, but both Kirkpatrick and Coach Smith agree that Brooklyn has been mostly supported by her male teammates.
“They treat her like she's their little sister. They don't want anything to happen to her. And when they do drills, they always encourage her and they always push her to be the best,” said Coach Smith. “When they see her working hard, it pushes them to work hard.”
She's a girl on the Tigers team, but Brooklyn says that her biggest disadvantage isn't her gender, but rather the public's perceptive of her.
“People look at me differently,” said Brooklyn. “At the school, it's a normal thing; but from the outside, with other people looking in, they might not see it how everybody else sees it.”
Needless to say, Brooklyn has felt the most support not from her teammates or classmates, but rather from her family.
“At first they were kinda timid to let me join,” Brooklyn admits. “But they came to the conclusion that they believe I can do it.” And they do believe that she can hold her own against the boys on her team and on the opposing teams.
“I'm overwhelmed and I'm proud of her,” said Chuck Kirkpatrick. “It just hit me one day: she can do this.”
This is technically Brooklyn's second year back in the Jefferson County School District, after spending time in Leon County schools since she was pulled from Jefferson County after the third grade.
Playing on the Offensive and Defensive Line, Brooklyn has fought hard to be where she is at.
“This is new to everyone,” said Kirkpatrick, though he praised Coach Smith's handling of Brooklyn joining the team, saying that he believes the head coach really seems to like having Brooklyn on his team.
“She was adamant about coming out there and I had to test her at first to see if she really wanted to come,” said Coach Smith. “It's been amazing to see her come out here every day, give it her all and learning and wanting to learn and wanting to play – not just be on the sidelines and be on the team. She actually wants to play. It's encouraging to me.”
Brooklyn Kirkpatrick isn't just a token female athlete on the Tigers' team, she's a fighting, roaring, clawing Tiger like any of the boys – and she wants to inspire other women to fight, claw and roar for what they want too.
“I just want to inspire other females to do anything they want,” said Brooklyn. “Believe in yourself before anything; if you don't believe in yourself, no one else can and don't let what anybody will say about you affect you.”