Kicking Down Barriers : Cleveland’s Diana Adds Football Heroics to Her Unparalleled Athletic Career

This is not the screenplay for yet another super hero movie sequel, though it might seem that way at first.

The following is a running audio description of 30 minutes in the life of Michele Diana:

Bam! Pow! Swat!

Diana then ducks into a locker room, if not the nearest phone booth, and changes from volleyball togs into more colorful attire.

“She just puts on her cape and goes,” said Frank, her older brother.

And goes and goes and goes, like that darn Energizer rabbit. Diana emerges from the locker room decked from head to toe, the latter being the most important, in Cleveland High football attire and spends the rest of the afternoon, well. . . .

Wham! Boot! Boom!

Deion, meet Diana, Cleveland’s five-sport athlete. This time of year, she is playing for the girls’ volleyball team and the boys’ football team, though the football gender reference has obviously been shot to pieces.

Stereotypes have been falling all around since Diana joined the football team this season. For instance, whoever coined the term “Renaissance Man,” or “Man for All Seasons,” definitely missed the gender boat with Diana.

Her list of accomplishments is impressive. Last week, she converted two point-after attempts to give her 12 points, believed to be the state single-season scoring record for a girl.

By the time she graduates, she will have been a four-year letterman in each of softball and volleyball and also will have lettered in girls’ track and girls’ soccer. She is an honor student, a homecoming queen and peer counselor.

“She’s a real neat gal,” said Everett Macy, the football coach and dean of students. “She’s fun to be around, she’s real popular with everybody.”

Popularity had nothing to do with landing a berth on the football team. Diana earned her position and is no novelty.

It did not take long for her to gain the respect of her coaches and teammates. In fact, it took about as long as it takes a ball to travel 24 yards.

This is not a women-belong-in-the-kitchen joke, but in Cleveland’s first game against Fairfax, Diana went from the frying pan into the fire.

With 1 minute 20 seconds left and the score tied, she was sent out to attempt a point-blank field goal. Fairfax jumped offside, though, setting up a fourth-and-one play at the two-yard line. Diana was yanked as Cleveland lined up to try for the first down.

This time, Cleveland was flagged for a penalty and the ball was moved back five yards. Diana, who thought she had been given a reprieve, was sent back out. “I just kept telling myself that it was shorter than a PAT,” Diana said. “I just had to calm down and do it. It was all in my head.”

And it was heady stuff, indeed, when she converted to give Cleveland a 25-22 victory. Suddenly, all suspicions about her abilities were erased.

“I was kind of doubting her,” tailback Coron Lewis said. “I thought, ‘Can she do it?’ She’s a girl, you know.”

No kidding. Though from that point on, she became a real member of the team. Kalin Bracero, a defensive back and Diana’s boyfriend, believes the kick cemented Diana’s legitimacy. Any whispers or snide remarks about his girlfriend ended before they had a chance to begin.

“People could have talked, it could have been like that,” said Bracero, who was elected homecoming king. “But that first game changed everything.

“The stands were packed, the game went down to the wire and she won it for us. Whatever they were gonna say, they couldn’t say it anymore.”

Football, Diana said, is just another mountain to scale. What she would really like to land is a scholarship to play volleyball at a four-year college, but Diana realizes opportunities are limited for 5-foot-7 outside hitters.

At times, though, Diana can bang volleyballs with the best of them. In a match against Reseda on Tuesday, Cleveland rolled through the first two games but was in danger of blowing the third, prolonging the match and cutting into football practice time.

The Cavaliers trailed, 14-12, in the third game when Diana stepped forward. She recorded a stuff block and two kills as Cleveland pulled even and won, 15-1, 15-11, 16-14.

“I had kicking to do,” she said.

Diana has converted all nine of her PAT attempts and has made one of two field-goal attempts. Her total of 12 points moves her one ahead of kicker Rachel Gagliano of Monroe in 1989.

Mark Tennis of Cal-Hi Sports magazine, who tracks state records in several sports, said there are several girl kickers in the state and that Diana will have to wait until the season ends to see if her mark will stand. It is most assuredly the Valley-area record.

As one might expect, there have been a few humorous moments, depending on whether you’re a nail-biting relative. Three weeks ago, while the team was lining up for a point-after attempt, the snap sailed through the hands of holder Robert Foster and into the arms of you-know-who. Diana, you see, only handles field goals and PATs. Kickoffs are someone else’s responsibility--and so is carrying the ball.

“She looked scared,” Foster said. “Real scared.”

A zillion things flashed through her mind, but the impulse for self-preservation won out. Brother Frank, a Times All-Valley kicker-linebacker in 1989, had left instructions with his sister in the event she found herself holding the football. In short: Raise the white flag.

“The first thing I told her was that if she ever got the ball, either fall down or give it to somebody else,” Frank said. “I didn’t want anybody taking a cheap shot at her.”

Diana deftly and wisely thrust the ball into the hands of Foster, who was smeared while trying to reach the end zone.

Said Diana: “I was like, ‘Do I throw it? Do I run it? I don’t want it, you take it.’ Hey, he was the closest person to me.”

Though Diana’s ponytail runs well down her back, some of her opponents have failed to recognize she is a female. Until they get a better look, that is.

“Last week, when we were shaking hands after the San Fernando game, a couple of players looked at me kind of funny,” she said, smiling. ‘Two or three of them said, ‘Is that a girl? Hey, that is a girl. What are you doing after the game?’ ”

Truth be told, Diana wants to be treated like one of the guys, and if people never notice that she is a girl on the football field, more the better. In fact, after Tuesday’s volleyball match against Reseda, she emerged from the locker room in full pads and helmet, even though all she does at practice is kick.

“I don’t want them to see me as some girl who needs special treatment,” said Diana, who buckled and unbuckled her chin strap a half-dozen times in a 15-minute interview. “I want to be part of the team like everybody else.”

Diana first started popping off about trying out for the football team as a sophomore, when she brazenly told Frank that she planned to replace him. A volleyball injury that resulted in extensive surgery on her left knee two years ago put the scheme on hold. Temporarily.

“She had the leg for it because she played soccer all those years,” Frank said. “She just needed to get the mechanics down.”

Frank was her tutor, returning a favor. When Frank used to practice his kicking, Michele used to be the holder. He did likewise over the summer as Michele rounded into shape. The remainder of the family remained dubious.

“They all said, ‘Yeah, you’re crazy,’ ” she said. “My brother had confidence in me because we used to come out and kick together. He knew I was gonna do it. Then I brought the pads home, and everybody else kind of went, ‘Uh-oh.’ ”

That no longer is the reaction of the Cleveland players when Diana trots out onto the field. In a season with more than a few ups and down--Cleveland (2-5) has lost five games in a row--Diana has been remarkably consistent.

She has taken a few shots in the process. Diana lined up for a point-after attempt against Granada Hills when a bad snap sent Foster scrambling for his life. Diana thought she was merely a spectator until she was blindsided and knocked on her backside by a Highlander player.

“The play was over and I had my back turned when he just nailed me and I went flying,” she said. “Our players were yelling, ‘They hit Michele, they hit Michele. Everybody get No. 23!’ ”

She’s no princess, Diana. She gamely got up and told her teammates that no reprisals were necessary.

Next up is softball in the spring. Strangely, in this particular sport, she rarely kicks the ball; defense is her strong suit. “My offense is a little shaky,” said Diana, an outfielder. “I just have to practice a little on it.”

If only she had the time.