They Provide Solid Footing : Kicking for Adjacent Schools, Friends Enjoy Rivalry Amid the Pressure of Being Female

What makes them kick. What makes them tick. Female high school football players, on the next Oprah.

It’s bound to happen. And don’t be surprised if the panel includes best friends at neighboring schools, Chrissy Sanford of Newbury Park and Joy Barry of Thousand Oaks.

Sanford set a Newbury Park record Friday by kicking six extra points. Barry was two for two in Thousand Oaks’ opener, although the team attempted no kicks last week.

By putting their best feet forward, Sanford and Barry are in step with a statewide trend. Seventy-one girls suited up for varsity football in 1993, more than five times as many as in 1991.

In the region alone, Ventura’s Natalie Dorr, North Hollywood’s Christine Hauser and Simi Valley’s Tanya Brown-Tuiaana are also helping kick down one of the last athletic barriers to girls.

Although they are not the first female kickers in the region--Amy Cook (Chaminade), Rachel Gagliano (Monroe) and Michele Diana (Cleveland) are recent examples of others--all five are the first at their schools.

Dorr, a senior, scored 33 points last season but an injury has kept her sidelined this year. Hauser, a junior, made one of two conversion kicks last week. Brown-Tuiaana, a senior, is a backup kicker and wide receiver.

Neither Sanford nor Barry, both 16-year-old juniors, was handed her job on a tee. The players honed their skills on the junior varsity last year and beat out boys for the jobs.

“When she first came out for the team last year, we were like, ‘I don’t know about this,’ but Chrissy steps it up for the games,” said Eric Mahanke, Newbury Park’s star wide receiver and linebacker who also makes the center snaps on Sanford’s kicks.

Barry also quickly quieted doubters.

“Some guys made comments but I didn’t listen to them,” she said. “I’ve put up with their crap for three years. They’ve come to respect what I do.”

Sanford and Barry have a lot in common besides kicking it with the boys.

Both are among the premier girl soccer players in the state, in fact forging their friendship as longtime soccer teammates.

Both are described by coaches and friends as having exceptional mental toughness, enabling them to withstand the pressure every kicker feels.

And both are highly competitive. Even with one another.

Because Thousand Oaks played the previous night, Barry was able to watch Sanford set the extra point record. After the game, Joy could not be contained, rushing to the field and congratulating her friend.

“You are awesome, a total stud,” Barry told Sanford.

Yet driving home, Barry had other thoughts.

“As good as she kicked, I’ll be wanting to do that too,” she said. “There will always be that competition between me and Chrissy.”

The Thousand Oaks junior varsity defeated Newbury Park, 14-13, last year on Barry’s extra point. Sanford missed a conversion kick earlier in the game.

“I was upset with myself that I missed,” Sanford said. “I’d pulled a thigh muscle in practice and was still trying to kick. I didn’t want to be a wimp about it, but I had no power. I was totally bummed.”

Sanford and Barry talk on the phone frequently, exchanging technical advice and emotional support.

“Me and Joy are like, really good friends,” Sanford said. “I don’t think what we are doing is that special, but no one else can really relate to it the way she can.”

A Little Jealousy

Jealousy, in fact, is beginning to rear its pony-tailed head.

“I hate to say it but Chrissy is getting a little big-headed,” said a Newbury Park classmate of Sanford. “I don’t really blame her, she got so much attention at school Monday after setting the record.

“I think some other girls could have been the kicker. I wish I would have done it.”

Also harboring resentment are boys confused about why the kicker--regardless of gender--is getting more acclaim than full-time players.

“We’re out there working our butts off every day and she got all this attention,” said a former Ventura player who was a teammate of Dorr’s last year. “I guess I could understand the reason, but it didn’t seem fair. Kickers aren’t really athletes.”

Dorr would beg to differ: Like Sanford and Barry, she is an exceptional soccer player. And all three are playing soccer concurrently with football.

Barry recently made the Olympic Development western regional team and will travel to Florida to play the Southern Regional squad during the Thanksgiving holiday. She also plays for the Las Virgenes Blazers, a team for women 19 and under.

Sanford is a member of the Olympic Development state team and also plays for the Conejo Valley United Rockettes, a team of 16-year-olds coached by her father, Guy Sanford. She also is a varsity swimmer and high jumper.

“I’ve been playing soccer for 10 years, and kicking a football is the same form and technique,” said Sanford, who says she kicks equally well with either foot.

Still, she sought an expert to help her improve. Sanford is taking kicking lessons from Cal Lutheran assistant coach Eric Davis.

“I expected that a female could kick maybe 20 yards,” Davis said. “She came right out and booted one 40 yards. I said, ‘Good Lord.’ ”

Sanford made a similar impression on Newbury Park coaches last year during a tryout. She had never kicked a football before, yet after 15 minutes of kicking, she was issued pads and a uniform.

Barry, who had kicked for the freshman team in 1992, encouraged Sanford to try.

“She told me how much fun it was, that all you have to do is kick the ball and stuff,” Sanford said. “I figured that if she could do it, I could too.”

Barry, a left-footed kicker, took up freshman Coach Chuck Brown’s offer of a tryout by practicing for two days with her father, then showing up for practice.

For his part, Brown harbored no prejudices about girls being unable to compete: He has coached numerous female Lancer basketball and softball players who went on to Division I colleges, including Marion Jones (basketball, North Carolina), Amy Chellevold (softball, Arizona) and Michelle Palmisano (basketball, UCLA).

“Joy is a very mentally tough person, and once I saw that it didn’t bother her to have all these guys crashing in around her, I knew she could do this,” Brown said.

Barry and Sanford have proven they can kick well under pressure, yet both freely admit to nervousness.

“My first varsity kick, oh my God, I was so scared,” Barry said. “If I missed it, people would say, ‘Oh God, she’s so bad.’ ”

Boom, the kick split the uprights, as they say on TV. Her second kick hooked slightly right, but was good.

Popularity Soars

As their kicks have risen over the crossbar, their acceptance by teammates has skyrocketed. “The guys on the team totally like her,” said Meredith Disney, a friend of Sanford.

Because Barry has been playing for three years, she has become one of the guys, in a sense.

“Most guys have learned to respect it,” Barry said. “They say, ‘Wow, a girl playing football, that’s cool.’ ”

The only concession to Barry’s gender is that on the Thousand Oaks roster her weight is listed as question marks. For the record, Barry is 5-foot-4, 105 pounds; Sanford is 5-6, 125.

The pair have toppled another barrier as well, engaging in something unheard-of in high school football: practicing with rival players.

Barry visited Newbury Park this week and last year Sanford traveled to Thousand Oaks to join Barry in a tee party.

Both girls make kicks beyond 40 yards in practice and are anxious to try a field goal. They have competition, however. Senior Andy Carpiac at Thousand Oaks and junior Brant Diediker at Newbury Park, who their coaches believe have stronger legs than the girls, will attempt long kicks.

Davis, the Cal Lutheran kicking coach, said Sanford is ready to increase her distance.

“She has 40 yards in her easy, 45 maybe,” he said.

Barry might have to wait until next season to attempt a long field goal. But she will have competition from the Lancers’ current junior varsity kicker.

The name? Meet Nicole Straky.