Not only for the boys: Trio of females suiting up for Colts football this fall

By JAMES TUBB on September 10, 2021.

Amelie Siebenlest, a Grade 12 german exchange student, partakes in McCoy football practice on Tuesday. Siebenlest is one of three girls playing for the Colts this season. -- NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB

Football at McCoy has a different look this season.

The Colts roster features three girls, one an international student from Germany, something head coach Darrell Grass did not expect but welcomes.

“The expectation of a player is a player. When you can do these jobs then you can play,” he said. “It doesn’t matter the size, it’s the size of your heart that determines if you’re a player.”

The three girls, Selena Ross, Kenzie Regier and Amelie Siebenlest are all in their first year of football at McCoy. Regier is in Grade 10 while Ross and Siebenlest, who is the exchange student from Germany, are both in Grade 12.

For Siebenlest, the move from Germany to Medicine Hat immediately involved football. She got interested in the sport by watching one of her cousins back home.

“My little cousin started playing, she’s 11, I went to one of her games and I was flushed,” she said.

She says a team approached her looking for players and she wanted to play. Her team could not start games due to COVID but they practiced over the summer before she moved to Canada. The decision to join the Colts was an easy one because the team was, “really welcoming,” she said.

Grass says he’s been impressed with what Siebenlest has brought to the team.

“When I heard I had a German exchange student coming over that’s played football before I thought, ‘wow cool.’… It ends up being a girl and I talked to her and she said what she played, but her skills are phenomenal,” he said.

“I was happy. Anybody that has some skills already is great because then we don’t have to start from scratch.”

Siebenlest says her first game last week, the Rick Boksteyn Memorial Bowl, was a memorable one and something she really enjoyed.

“It was so exciting, I was so scared. I had a guy who was like two heads taller than me, it was a little bit scary but it was great,” she said.

She says for the Colts’ next game she will have to learn the playbook but is looking forward to playing again.

“It’s very fun.”

For Regier, playing football is a family affair. Her dad and all of her uncles played and she wanted to continue the family tradition. She doesn’t see girls playing football as anything different, it’s just football to her.

“Back when anyone else in my family played, there was always at least one girl on the team. I’ve never found that weird,” she said.