Rebecca Longo (born March 17, 1999) is an American football kicker who became the first woman to earn a college football scholarship to an NCAA school at the Division II level or higher when she signed a letter of intent with Adams State University.[1] She attended Basha High School in Chandler, Arizona and started playing football competitively her sophomore year. In 2014, she was a junior varsity kicker at Queen Creek High in Arizona, but after transferring to Basha High she was forced to sit out her junior year.[2]
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born: | March 17, 1999 Chandler, Arizona, U.S. |
| Height | 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) |
| Weight | 140 lb (64 kg) |
| Career history | |
| College |
|
| High school | Basha High School (Chandler) |
In her final year of high school, she converted 35 extra points on 38 attempts and was successful on her lone field goal attempt of the season of 30 yards. She did not handle kickoff duties.[3] She was listed as 5 foot 11 inches tall and 140 pounds.[4][5]
After a redshirt year, and an ankle injury during the 2018 season, Longo left Adams State without attempting a kick or playing a down in a game. She announced via her social media that she wished to "pursue other opportunities", presumably at other universities.
In September 2019, Longo announced that she had joined the Gila River Hawks of the newly formed Hohokam Junior College Athletic Conference. The conference disbanded after one season. The conference, consisting of only four teams of random students from a junior college in the area, may have been created solely to help Longo fulfill her stated claim of playing in a "college football" game.
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Margin, Jill (April 13, 2017). "Becca Longo: Female kicker makes college football history with scholarship". CNN. Retrieved April 14, 2017.
- ^ Bonagura, Kyle (April 13, 2017). "Kicker set to become 1st woman on scholarship at Div. II level or higher". ESPN. Retrieved April 14, 2017.
- ^ Al-Khateeb, Zac (April 13, 2017). "Female kicker Becca Longo makes college football history". Sporting News. Retrieved April 14, 2017.
- ^ "Arizona teenager Becca Longo makes history with college football scholarship". The Guardian. April 13, 2017. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved April 14, 2017.
- ^ Obert, Richard (April 12, 2017). "This young Arizona woman just made college football history". azcentral. Retrieved April 14, 2017.