In my weekly feature “High Flying Hawk” I will be interviewing the top female athlete of every week.

Ninth grader Isabella Lima is one of two girls who play freshman football. She is playing football for the first time on  a competitive team.
Lima is one of three safeties of the team. She covers any receivers that blow past the cornerback that was covering them. She also tackles and goes after the ball carrier.
So far Lima enjoys the sport. “It’s so much fun. It’s a pretty big change from lacrosse because there’s more fouls called. There’s also less breaks in lacrosse which makes it a harder sport for me. But I have to say it’s a really good change.”

Lima likes not only the sport, but also bonding with her teammates.

“I can’t tell you how many new friends I’ve made on this team. The guys have been so welcoming, and they’ve taught me so much. They’ve taught me the rules and regulations of football.”

“I got into football about 5 years ago when I started to watch it with my family. It just seemed like such a fun sport to play, so this year I finally built up the courage to play. I love being physical and playing contact sports.”

Lima is definitely not having trouble with the physical aspect of the sport. I was shocked to hear that she used to wrestle.

“Yeah I like physical sports. I may not look like the type of person, but you can sign me up for anything physical. I used to wrestle competitively actually.” She started to giggle. “Yeah I know it sounds weird hearing a girl say she used to wrestle, but I gotta say it was probably the best experience of my life because I made so many friends while doing it and it’s taught me how to be a good sport and be a good teammate. ”

“I also play lacrosse which is actually really physical, almost like hockey I’ve heard.”

Even in her short time on the field, Lima has found success.

“In one practice I made one of the best tackles I have ever gotten in my short football career. I tackled the best player on the team named Juan who is on the JV team. He had broken out of 5 tackles and was running towards me, and I started to run right at him. I could tell that he wanted to run right through me. I had gotten a good jump on him. I got such a good tackle that we went into the bushes. I had the whole team yelling and screaming, and I was getting high-fives and good compliments from all of my teammates. I had a really good feeling in my stomach.”

Lima hopes to have a lot more memories and stories like this one in the future.

“There is no reason why I wouldn’t play next year. I wouldn’t even have to think about it. I think I made a great choice when I decided to play football my freshman year.”