Girl booted off football team gets to play

A 14-year-old Spalding County girl finally got her wish this weekend — to play as a kicker on her high school football team. And her team won.

Kacy Stuart suited up after the prep league to which her school belongs reconsidered its earlier decision barring her from playing because she’s a girl.

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Kathy Jefcoats/kjefcoats@ajc.com

With Kacy Stuart’s help, the Crusaders defeated the East Atlanta Mustangs on Saturday.

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Kacy is a freshman who tried out and qualified to play for the Crusaders football team of the New Creation Center, a private Christian academy in McDonough.

But when the Georgia Football League, which supervises athletes who attend private schools or are home schooled, heard about the Crusaders’ new member, it forbade her from playing.

Last week, the league reversed itself and let Kacy play without restrictions.

“All it took was a letter from our attorney,” her mother Angie Stuart said. “I appreciate the league letting her play.”

“She got to do all the kicks and the extra points,” and didn’t miss any of the three extra-point attempts, Angie Stuart said. The Crusaders defeated the East Atlanta Mustangs on Saturday.

Hank St. Denis, who as executive board chairman of the Georgia Football League in August overruled New Creation’s decision to let Kacy join its team, declined to comment when reached by telephone Sunday night.

Kacy, who also plays soccer, played football at Henry County’s Union Grove Middle School last year as a kicker. The team went to the state finals, and Henry high school coaches were eager to have her join them this fall.

But the family moved to Spalding County, and Kacy had to change schools. She first enrolled in Skipstone Academy, a small Griffin private school, but that school didn’t have an athletics program. So Kacy was allowed to join New Creation’s football team. That’s when the problems with the league began.

Kacy’s victory almost came too late for this season. The dispute sidelined her for six games, her mother said, and there’s only one more game scheduled in the regular season.