Dallas ISD's Wilmer-Hutchins Eagles are soaring this year with football team's new "girly girl" kicker
DALLAS (CBSNewsTexas.com) — The Wilmer-Hutchins Eagles are soaring this season.
The football team is off to a 5-0 start, and that's despite a new kicker who kicks like a girl.
"Yeah, I'm really a 'girly girl,'" admitted 17-year-old Jacqueline Aguilar. And she's got the ballgown pictures to prove it.
But this standout girls soccer player, who says her grandmother started teaching her the game when she was just 2 years old, is now breaking ground on a different field.
"I have an uncle who plays football," Aguilar shared. "He played for Kansas and he's the one supporting me. And he was like, 'Oh, you have to do this.'"
And she did.
"Every now and then, you need something to kind of give you a boost," explained Elzie Barnett, Wilmer-Hutchins' head football coach. He credits the head girls soccer coach Afi George for bringing Aguilar to his attention, but George demurs, saying the head coach is giving her too much credit.
"He called and asked, 'Who's your best kicker?,'" explained George. "And I told him, and it just went from there."
George says she's not at all surprised that Aguilar made the team. "She's tough."
And clearly talented.
"The fact that she drilled it and sent it home was, you know, it was a big relief for me," Barnett said. "The boys erupted when she made that kick."
Even with her own dressing room, teammates say Aguilar is just one of the guys—and one that consistently performs.
"If we get it right [the snap], she's never gonna miss," shared senior football captain Amos Rattler.
The team is also especially passionate about protecting her. "After every kick, I make sure she don't get touched or nothing. And then if they touch the wrong way, then, you know, we'll have to deal with it."
As for that first big goal, Aguilar admits to having some nerves.
"I was like, 'Oh my God, I don't want to miss the first...because there was a lot of people around...But once I hit it, I was like, 'Oh, I have so much confidence now.'"
Aguilar says her family has always been supportive and she never doubted that she could be successful, and now she's an inspiration as well.
"It's inspiring for me as a father to have a Latina female kicker, because that means that I can coach my daughter into being a kicker," added Manuel Zaragoza, the head boys soccer and football kicking coach. "It's very inspiring for me, for my wife, for my mom and everyone in the family."
Aguilar says she's been thinking about college since middle school and says she'd love to kick on a college team. "I follow my heart and it's something I want to do."
And that passion has been a special motivation for her peers.
"It's a winning spirit," explained Barnett. "You know, our new principal came in and she [Shadaria Foster] brought this slogan: 'Welcome to the Winner's Circle.' And it feels good when you're standing in that circle. And for five weeks in a row, we've been in that winner's circle."
