Jackson Free Press

Several women have played football at the college level for years now. Most of these young women were walk-on players, or players with no scholarship.

In 1997, Liz Heaston became the first woman to ever play and score in a college football game when she scored in a game for Willamette University, in Oregon, a then-NAIA-level university, in a 27-0 win over Linfield College, in Oregon. Heaston kicked two extra points, and her jersey hangs in the College Football Hall of Fame.

Two years later, Katie Hnida became the first woman to suit up for a NCAA Division I (now called the Football Bowl Subdivision) school at the University of Colorado. In 2003, she became the first woman to score in a Division I game at New Mexico State University. She became the first woman to try an extra point in a bowl game the year before, but an opposing player blocked it.

Before Hnida, Ashley Martin became the first woman to kick an extra point at the NCAA Division I-AA (now the Football Championship Subdivision) level for Jacksonville State University. She made three extra points without a miss in a 71-10 win over Cumberland University.

Former University of West Alabama kicker Tonya Butler became the first woman to kick a field goal in 2003 when she kicked a 27-yard field goal in a 24-17 win over Stillman College.

Other women have been kickers at nearly every level of college football. Some did get a chance to kick for their teams, and others were never called upon.

It hasn’t always been easy for women playing college football. Hnida alleged that she had been sexually assaulted while at Colorado. She didn’t press charges, but the incident became a major scandal at the schools, as other women spoke out about being sexually harassed and assaulted by members of the football team.

In 2014, Shelby Osborne became the first woman to play a position besides kicker when she became the first college defensive back at NAIA school Campbellsville University, in Kentucky. NAIA schools don’t hand out athletic scholarships.

Last week, April 14, 2017, Becca Longo became the first women to sign a national letter of intent to play college football. Longo will kick for NCAA Division II Adams State University, which is located in Colorado.

She is the first woman at Division II or higher to play college football on scholarship. The other kickers and players who made history didn’t receive a scholarship.

Each year, it is becoming more common for young women to play football at the high-school level.

As it becomes normal for them to play football in high school, it will become more common to see them at the college level. One day, a young woman might quarterback a college football team at the NAIA or NCAA Division III level of college football.

Sports are a great way to teach kids about life lessons such as winning and losing, hard work, dealing with adversity and more.

The First Tee Central of Mississippi is a way for kids to learn lessons using the program’s “Nine Core Values” of honesty, integrity, sportsmanship, respect, confidence, responsibility and perseverance. Golf is a unique sport in that players are supposed to call penalties on themselves, fix the field of play, including replacing divots of grass that the club cuts out of the ground, follow a certain etiquette on the course, keep score and more.

The First Tee national program started in 1997 with a partnership between the LPGA, the PGA of America, the PGA Tour, the USGA and the Masters Tournament to get more kids playing golf by starting affordable junior golf programs.

With a need to grow the game and get kids interested in golf, those partners came up with The First Tee program. The organization blended learning the rules of the game with life lessons from its Nine Core Values.

In June 2008, The First Tee of The Pine Belt was established after a four-year quest to bring the national program to Mississippi. The journey of The First Tee of Central Mississippi started in June 2015. It became an official The First Tee program on March 30, 2017.

The First Tee of Central Mississippi held a press conference at the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum on April 13, to make the formal announcement of First Tee becoming an official program in central Mississippi.

This program will serve Hinds, Rankin and Madison counties. Four golf courses, The Refuge Golf Course, LeFleur’s Bluff Golf Course, Grove Park Golf Course and Sonny Guy Municipal Golf Course are the first courses to join the program.

Now that the program is a part of The First Tee organization, the program is hitting the ground running. On June 1, a nine-week summer program is starting at the four golf courses, and www.thefirstteecentralmississippi.org will have information on signing up.

The First Tee of Central Mississippi is open to kids from ages 7 to 18. The program is going to partner up with physical-education teachers in the area to begin teaching kids about the game of golf and work with local afterschool programs such as the YMCA to help teach.

Lisa Hill, who is the program director, explained at the press conference that volunteers, equipment, donations and giving time are needed to help the program be successful. The First Tee of Central Mississippi is a nonprofit program.

For more information, visit the website, www.thefirsteecentralmississippi.org. The program is on Facebook (The First Tee of Central Mississippi), Instagram (@TheFirstTeeCentalMS), Snapchat (@TheFirstTeeMS) and Twitter (@TheFirstTeeCentralMS).

One of the feel-good stories of the 2010 NFL offseason has come to an ugly end seven years later. The San Francisco 49ers signed undrafted free agent Tramaine Brock out of tiny Belhaven University in Jackson, Miss.

On April 6, 2017, Brock was arrested in Santa Clara, Calif., for suspicion of felony domestic violence against his girlfriend. He made bail the next day, and shortly afterwards, San Francisco released him.

Brock’s arrest happens to be the first major off-the-field incident for the new regime of General Manager John Lynch and Head Coach Kyle Shanahan. It is the third new coach in San Francisco in the last three years. They wasted no time in releasing the player.

Before Brock, no player in the history of Belhaven football had played in the NFL, and his road wasn’t the typical path.

He played at Long Beach High School in Gulfport, Miss., and then at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College. He signed with the University of Minnesota after two years at MGCCC but left Minnesota after being suspended for academic ineligibility. He went from Big Ten-conference school Minnesota to tiny NAIA Belhaven.

Brock played his senior year with the Blazers but went undrafted in the 2010. He ended up signing with the 49ers and landed on the practice squad after training camp. In his rookie NFL season, Brock appeared in three games and made just three tackles.

The former Belhaven star played in 11 games in the following year and recorded his first career interception. He would play in all 16 games in the 2012 season and forced his first career fumble that season. The 49ers also reached Super Bowl XLVII that year but ended up losing to the Baltimore Ravens.

Brock had his best season as a professional thus far in 2013, with five interceptions, 13 defended passes and a touchdown. He played in all 16 games and started in seven during the season, which is also the first time that he started in the NFL.

Injuries derailed the Gulfport native’s 2014 season as he played in just three games with only two starts. Brock bounced back in 2015 with 15 starts in 15 games played with three interceptions.

Brock started all 16 games for the first time in his career last season as he set a career high in tackles with 49 total stops. He made one interception and forced this second career fumble.

The 49ers have a recent history of players, such as Ray McDonald and Aldon Smith, with off-the-field issues. The release of Brock was a message to the rest of the team on how things will now be done in San Francisco, even if Shanahan says it wasn’t message. When the team was winning earlier this decade, it overlooked bad behavior by some players.

Recently, San Francisco hasn’t been winning games, and that means the hammer comes down faster. Brock wasn’t a star for the …