Finley Football Player Fits Right In
She’s the only girl on the team but veteran football coach Rick Eriksen call’s her “just one of the guys.” J. Taylor Finley Middle School eighth grader Charytin Ortiz fits in perfectly with teammates on the perennially tough Falcon squad.
“She’s a very nice gal,” said Eriksen, who has coached Finley football for more than two decades. In the team’s opening game 20-0 victory over West Hollow, Ortiz recorded a tackle from her defensive back position.
The teenager is hearing impaired but that has proven to be no hindrance to her on-field efforts. “She’s just like everyone else as far as going through practice drills and doing all the things a player is expected to do,” Eriksen said. At the school’s pep rally last Friday afternoon, Ortiz sat in the middle of a bleacher section with the team and blended right in. Her teammates have accepted her without incident and treat her as an equal.
Eriksen and fellow coach Phil Lowe don’t give the eighth grader any special treatment and she probably wouldn’t want any. Finley Principal John Amato is proud of Ortiz for participating in such an activity and believes she deserves to be recognized.
If she has previous experience in the sport, Eriksen said he isn’t aware of it. The eighth grader works hard and that’s all that matters to coaches. “She fits right in,” Eriksen said. “It isn’t a big deal.”
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