Although she may not have been the first girl on the Liberty football team, freshman Abby Shields continues the legacy that previous players, Mallory Kleewein, Natalie Ray and Kallie Fruehwirth began in 2013.

Shields’ love for football began in her fifth-grade year when she witnessed Kleewein, Ray and Fruehwirth playing on the freshman team. Upon that moment of inspiration, Shields began acting on her dream by lifting weights, when she went to the gym with her father and playing other sports, like basketball.

Upon the end of her eighth-grade year, Shields began the process to become part of the team by attending mandatory weightlifting with the rest of the team.

“Towards the end of my eighth-grade year, we (the team) had weight training, so we’d come up to Liberty after school, and when I first started doing that, most of the freshman boys accepted me pretty quickly. But then the upperclassmen were like, ‘Wait, are you playing football?’ And then they were like, ‘No, you’re not,’ ‘You’re gonna be a kicker, right?’ They wanted me to be the kicker. And I’m not,” Shields said.

Shields receives a lot of attention, both wanted and unwanted. While she admits the recognition is appreciated, too much of it can be quite stressing.

“Some people, even if I request them to stop doing that, they don’t. And they still see me something as very special, but I don’t want to be seen as ‘Oh, I’m so special because I’m a girl.’ I just wanna be seen as a regular football player,” Shields said.

Shields, who plays as an offensive tackle and a defensive end on the freshman team, admits that she received initial criticism consistently throughout the beginning of summer practice. But once word began to spread that she had joined the team, the criticism began to come not only within practice but out of practice as well.

“I’ve had friends’ parents tell me it’s a ‘man’s sport’ and I shouldn’t be playing it. And I’ve also had people tell me I’m at risk for injury, which happens to everybody who plays football, not just specifically me,” Shields said. “I haven’t met anyone with an actual solid argument, they just don’t want me to be good. And so I’m kind of on this mission to prove them wrong.”

But as the year goes on and the season progress, Shields admits she feels more accepted compared to that at the beginning of summer practice, citing that varsity captains, senior Ryan Mason and junior Donavan Arrington, have supported her the whole way through.

“They’re student leaders I’ve looked up to a lot. They’ve supported me the whole way through and I love them for that,” Shields said.

Mason corroborates Shield’s story of support admitting he found it “cool” that Shields had joined the team, rather than responding with resistance.

“In football, we always say that we’re brothers. This year we’re a family. We’re more than just brothers, we have a sister with us now,” Mason said.

The addition of a young woman on the team has also proved to challenge the coaches as the familiarity of having an all-male team is disturbed. Coach Barnes has admitted to going through these challenges, finding it was more difficult on his part rather than the athletes themselves.  

“They (the team) treat her just like one of the guys,” Barnes said. “It was actually harder on myself and some of the other coaches, to begin with, because we’re just so used to saying, ‘guys’, ‘fellas’, ‘dudes’ and stuff like that. It was actually, in perspective, harder on us, to which she was very quickly like, ‘Guys, don’t worry about it.’”

Along with being an integral part of the family, the message that Shields has sent the team has such a profound effect that it can be felt throughout.

“To accept everybody for who they are. If somebody wants to play, let them play,” Mason said of the lessons Shields has taught the team. “Everyone wants to be there, everyone wants to work, let them work.”

In addition to proving others wrong, Shields also plays for the Liberty Eagle Regiment as a trombone player. While splitting her time between the two hasn’t been easy, both have allowed her to create the high school experience she wants.

“I get to school, and rehearsal (for band), starts at 6:30 a.m. and then I go through my normal school day and then football practice ends at 6 p.m. So I have to find time in other classes to get my work done and I don’t have any free time after I get home, I have to get my work done early,” Shields said.

Athough her schedule may seem hectic to others, Shields is able to balance herself to where she can do everything she wants.

“I just have to give my 100 percent in everything and if I do that, I might not have a lot of free time, but I make sure that I am able to do everything that I want to do,” Shields said.

But as for her goals in the near and far future, Shields aspires to become a starter as of next season and merely wants to see more acceptance throughout the team and hard work in the offseason.

“I wanna see more people training in the offseason and not just, ‘Oh, it’s football season, whatever’. I would like to see more people take it seriously,” Shields said. “And I would like everybody to be accepted, because I’ve seen people singled out.”

In the future, however, students might one day spot Shields on their televisions, playing Division I college football for Notre Dame, a lifelong dream for her. But for now, Shields reaches out to the aspiring football players of both genders, offering advice that can apply to every athlete.

“I’d say, if you really put your mind to it and really want to do it, you can. As long as you believe you can and don’t quit, it’s gonna be really hard at first, but don’t quit,” Shields said.

And as the season proceeds, it looks like there will be no stopping Shields as her determined mindset will bring her to places beyond Liberty.

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