When Jaymee Martin Is on the Cypress Football Field They Just Call Her ‘Bob’

The guys on the Cypress High School football team have nicknamed one of their new recruits in spring practice “Bob.”

The player, an athletic 5-foot 9-inch, 135-pound sophomore, is playing football for the first time after years of idolizing Walter Payton and the Chicago Bears.

But 16-year-old Jaymee Martin is without a doubt the only Centurion who has been dropped by a boyfriend after she joined the football team.

Martin, who has played girls’ junior varsity softball and soccer, is the first girl in the school’s history to go out for football.

The Centurions’ new head coach, John Selbe, said Martin will be given a fair shot at making the team.

She has participated in spring practices for the past month, although no contact is involved until the team dons pads in August.

“We’re letting her come out,” Selbe said. “She said she just wanted the experience of playing football. She wanted to see what it was like.

“She’ll be treated like anybody else,” he said. “I won’t try to run her off and I won’t compensate by treating her like a girl.”

Selbe said he does not plan to cut any of the juniors, who will be the core of next fall’s junior varsity team. The only situation that would cause him to consider making a cut would be if the player’s safety were in jeopardy.

“She might be a candidate for that,” he said. “We’ll watch her closely and monitor her ability and progress. At the end of the summer, we’ll sit down and have a conference with her, her father and maybe the principal, and evaluate her.”

Selbe said Martin has decent size for a sophomore, but her speed is “below average” compared to boys her age who would be competing for the positions of wide receiver and defensive back.

“I haven’t seen a girl that could play football yet, not just from the physical aspect, but also in terms of making the commitment,” he said. “But my philosophy is: If she wants to do it, she deserves to have the chance.

“Right now she’s pretty far down the depth chart, maybe third or fourth deep. But she’ll get what she deserves. If she deserves to be a starter, she’ll start.”

Martin, who has played eight years of soccer as a goalie, said she has imagined playing football since she was a little girl. A conversation with her older sister, Terina, convinced her she should try out.

“The practices are hard, but it’s fun,” she said. “Some of the guys kid around, but they’ve all been really nice to me.

“They started calling me “Bob” as a joke and it kind of stuck. I think a lot of them don’t even know my first name. Now when they see me at school, they say, ‘Hi, Bob.” The coaches just call me ‘James.’

“I don’t feel like a girl (during practices). It’s more like a team effort.”

Martin said she has run into one problem since joining the team.

“My boyfriend broke up with me and I’m pretty sure it was because of football,” she said. But she added she is now dating someone who demonstrates more support of her interest.

Selbe said that he met with the team to discuss the way he expected the other players to treat Martin.

“I told them they should consider her just like any other member of the team and respect her for trying,” he said. “They’ve accepted her. As a matter of fact, we don’t notice that she’s a girl anymore. It doesn’t cross anybody’s mind.

“She’s no problem. She tries everything we ask her to do. She has a good attitude. I can tell she’s still a little nervous out there, but I don’t blame her--I remember the first time I played football.”