She Has More Than Her Foot in Door Now

One day during Hell Week, kicker Jackie Kecskes of Granada Hills High drew stares from teammates when she brought a purse to practice.

She’s the only girl on the football team, so where else was she supposed to keep her car keys, wallet and comb?

“Apparently, it’s not a good thing to do,” she said. “They were like, ‘Put that away. We don’t have purses on the field.’ ”

It was one of her early lessons playing high school football.

“Now I stick it into a big, masculine sporting bag,” she said.

Life is far more comfortable for Kecskes this season, her second on the varsity. She’s no longer looked upon as “the girl” but as simply a varsity teammate.

“The atmosphere is way more friendly,” she said. “I kind of felt alienated at the beginning. The first day I heard someone say, ‘Hey, that’s a girl. What do we say to her?’ ”

Even the most skeptical person of all about girls playing football, co-coach Darryl Stroh, has become her strongest supporter.

“I always felt girls don’t belong in football,” Stroh said. “Jackie has earned her chance. She’s not been given anything. She’s as tough as anyone we’ve got mentally. She’s a great competitor.”

Quarterback Brandon Charls said he had to get used to having Kecskes around practice.

“She came in with a purse and bracelet and it drove me crazy,” he said.

The Granada Hills coaches weren’t particularly enthusiastic when she first asked to join the team. She saw the Highlanders lose to Chatsworth because of a missed extra point and thought she could help. She was an All-City Section soccer player with a strong leg.

“When I approached the coaches one day at lunch and asked if I could be in the conditioning class, they said I had to try out,” she said. “They kept saying, ‘Come back tomorrow.’ ”

Kecskes didn’t take the hint to go away. Once the coaches saw she was serious and committed, Kecskes quickly won them over. Last season, she made four field goals and 33 PATs. She even made a tackle on a kickoff.

“I basically got into the guy’s way and knocked him out of bounds, but that’s what a tackle is,” she said.

This season, she has made 29 of 31 conversion kicks, kicked three field goals (the longest being 34 yards) and hopes to take a shot at the school record for longest field goal of 51 yards.

A girl playing high school football is no longer the oddity it once was. A female kicker from New Mexico, Katie Hnida, became the first female to score in NCAA Division I-A football on Aug. 30 with two extra points.

“I was shattered about the girl from New Mexico who finally scored,” Kecskes said. “I was kind of hoping it would be me.”

A strong season could enable Kecskes to become the first girl to make All-City in football. She never joined the team to draw attention to herself. She had experience playing with boys on a co-ed soccer team.

“The boys are a lot looser,” she said. “I grew up with a sister. I never had the experience of having a brother and wanted to do this. It’s kind of like having 50, 60 brothers and it’s a nice, comfortable feeling.”

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It took only 90 years, but Van Nuys is finally getting a permanent on-campus baseball field.

“We’re ecstatic,” Principal Herman Clay said.

Van Nuys, which produced Hall of Fame pitcher Don Drysdale, opened in 1914 and has played most of its home games at Van Nuys Sherman Oaks Park. But the school will be receiving $200,000 from two bond measures to build a baseball diamond on its former softball field and construct a new softball diamond on a field south of the gymnasium.

There’s discussion about naming the baseball field in honor of Drysdale, the former Dodger pitcher who died in 1993.

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After going 2-8 last season, West Hills Chaminade (6-1) has won six consecutive football games under first-year Coach Ben McEnroe. Sophomore kicker Ryan Jackson has made eight of 13 field goals, including two from 46 yards. Senior receiver Marcus Everett has caught 11 scoring passes and is averaging 21.8 yards per catch. Junior quarterback Chris Turner has passed for 1,841 yards and 17 touchdowns.

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When it comes to versatile football players, Oregon State-bound Nate Johns of Redlands East Valley keeps raising the bar.

Johns, a quarterback and defensive back with terrific speed, scored one touchdown, passed for another touchdown and set up two more touchdowns with long kickoff returns in East Valley’s 41-21 victory over Fontana.

Earlier in the season against Quartz Hill, he rushed for two touchdowns, passed for a touchdown, scored on a 78-yard interception return and scored on a 98-yard kickoff return.

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Eric Sondheimer can be reached at eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.