ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, November 3, 1996 TAG: 9611040073
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MEGAN SCHNABEL STAFF WRITER
MEMO: ***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on November 5, 1996.
At least three girls played Sandlot football in Roanoke this year. A
story in Sunday's paper said Felicia Nance, who played in the Sandlot
Super Bowl Saturday, was the only girl participating.
MOST OF THE SANDLOT TEAMS know now that one of the starters is a girl, but it was a shocker for some at first.
The YMCA Renegades' locker room was not a cheerful place at halftime during their Sandlot Super Bowl game.
Not only was it cold and windy on the field, but they were down 27 to zip to the Inner City Falcons in the Little Division I championship game.
Over on the bench, No.45 looked as dejected as the rest of the team, despite having made a couple of great sacks in the early minutes of the game.
She pulled off her helmet and ran a hand over her pony tail as the coach...
No, that's right. Pony tail? Her helmet?
The Renegades' No.45, a starting linebacker and fullback, is 11-year-old Felicia Nance. According to YMCA athletic director Lewis Brown, she was the only girl in the area playing Sandlot football this year.
Felicia - who said she tried out for the team because she "didn't have anything better to do" - ended her first and last football season Saturday. She'll be too old to play in Little Division I next year, said coach Dennis Hardy, and the boys in the upper levels are just too rough.
But it's been a great year for Felicia and the rest of the Renegades, despite what turned out to be a 40-6 loss Saturday. The YMCA team went from losing every game last year to earning a Super Bowl berth opposite one of the toughest teams in the division.
Wearing her uniform - black pants, white jersey with maroon lettering, white helmet - Felicia didn't look any different from her teammates. But when the helmet came off, out popped bangs, a pony tail and a decidedly girlish face.
By the end of the season, the 18 guys were treating her like one of the guys. But they were skeptical at first, said her dad, Samuel Nance. Once they watched her play, though, they realized she was at least as tough as they were.
"They've seen she can take it and dish it out," her dad said. "She's a good size. They use her to open up the holes."
Brenda Reddicks, mother of No.21, Anthony Reddicks, said the team treats Felicia just like one of the boys.
"They love it," she said. "She's bad. She's tough."
Considering Felicia's family, a football career - even a short one - may have been inevitable. Her dad played football at the Y when he was a kid. Now he's an assistant coach for the Renegades. Her brother, Marcus, now in high school, played Sandlot football when he was younger. Felicia used to watch tapes of his games over and over again.
"She always liked football," her dad said. "She's a little tomboy."
Most of the other teams know that one of the Renegades' starting fullbacks is a girl. But that wasn't the case earlier in the season, said Brown, the Y's athletic director.
"It's been shocking for some of those boys," he said.
There was the time she ran for a touchdown and fell into the end zone as a boy on the other team brought her down hard. When she got up and took her helmet off, her tackler just stared. And stared.
"Man, he was shocked," Brown said with a laugh. "He was just looking at her, like, 'Hey, she's a girl!'''
That was the reaction Saturday on the other side of Salem Stadium, in Falcon territory.
"A girl? There's a girl out there?"
"Which one? No.45? Wow. She's tough."
"I knew there was a girl on one of these teams," said Ruby Penn, an aunt of the Falcons' No.51, Ronnie Edwards. "I think she should be able to play if she wants to."
Actually, any girl who can make the cut can play Sandlot, Brown said. He doesn't know if any other girls tried out this season.
"If they can take it, they can play," he said.
LENGTH: Medium: 83 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: CINDY PINKSTON/Staff. 1. An opponent barely escapesby CNBFelicia Nance's grasp during Saturday's championship game. color. 2.
Felicia Nance, 11, poses with her father, Samuel, before the Little
Division I championship game Saturday in Salem.