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11-year-old girl expelled from football league
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Inspired by her older brother, George, 14, Caroline started playing Pop Warner flag football at age 5 and was hooked. Once she got too big to play Pop Warner, she signed up to play tackle football with the CYO in the fifth grade.Two games into Caroline's second season, head coach Chip Ross received an unexpected call from Jason Budd, deputy secretary for Catholic education for the archdiocese, who oversees the football program.
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The 5-foot-3, 110-pound sixth-grader, Budd explained to Ross, could no longer play for the Romans because, according to the CYO handbook, football is a full-contact sport -- no girls allowed.
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After calls and e-mails to the archdiocese were unsuccessful, Caroline, no longer welcome to play football for the CYO, decided to call an audible.With the full support of her team, Caroline's mom, Seal Pla, started an online petition at change.org to encourage the archdiocese to allow girls to play football.Her original goal was to get 100 signatures. There are now more than 100,000.One signer is 9-year-old peewee football sensation Samantha "Sweet Feet" Gordon from Utah. She was recently featured on a Wheaties box and made a November appearance on "NFL Gameday Morning," where she showed off her moves to Hall of Famers Marshall Faulk and Warren Sapp. She also was invited to this year's Super Bowl in New Orleans, where she blogged for four days for espnW.com, which focuses on female athletes.
'More than able to hold her own,' girl gets boot from Catholic football league - CNN.com
