During signing day at Basha High School in Arizona the last thing that Becca Longo was expecting to hear from her high school football coach, Gerald Todd, was that she made history. Longo became the first woman to ever sign a Letter Of Intent to play college football at the Division II level. As she put it when told the news, "I didn't know until today, I'm still in shock from it. I'm just amazed." Besides football, she will also play basketball for the Adams State Grizzlies.
College football history made
Becca Longo originally signed her letter of intent with the Division II Adams State Grizzlies several weeks ago.
However, it was not until her high school signing day that she was aware of the history that she had made. Her coach, Gerald Todd, looked into the history of women playing college football and could not find one that had ever played on scholarship before. The Grizzlies are located in Alamosa, Colorado and have not had a winning season since 2013.
Longo did not try football until her freshman year in high school, though she says she had been fascinated by kicking for years. In 2014 at Queen Creek High School she was the junior varsity kicker, but had to sit out a year after transferring to Basha High School. During this time she also dealt with a serious back injury.
In 2016 she made it to spring football at Basha and won the starting job.
Longo handled field goals and extra points, although her team went for it on fourth-down due to having highly recruited dual-threat quarterback Ryan Kelley. During the season she was 1 of 1 on field goals and 35 of 38 on extra-point attempts. She will face competition for the job as the Grizzlies sophomore kicker is returning and they also signed another kicker this recruiting class.
Other women to play college football
There have been a dozen other women who have played college football. Liz Heaton was the first woman to score at any level of college football in 1997 for NAIA Willamette University. In 2001, Ashley Martin was the first to score at the FCS level for Jacksonville State University. In 1999 Katie Hnida became the first woman to dress for an FBS game for the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Hnida also became the first woman to score in an FBS game for the New Mexico Lobos in 2003. Tonya Butler became the first woman to score a field goal in a college game for the Division II West Alabama Tigers in 2003. Now, Becca Longo joins this exclusive club of female college football players.
