Engagement Insider
Barri Deptula wasn’t a football fan, didn’t even watch it on television.
“I never watched football when I was a little kid,’’ Deptula said. “My Dad would have it on TV every Sunday and I would go to my Mom and ask her, ‘Can’t we watch something on Lifetime?’ No, I really didn’t like football.’’
So how did the Hamilton East (N.J.) High School senior become one of the best high school kickers in her area?
“I played soccer and my soccer coach told me I should try out for the football team,’’ Deptula said. “To be honest, I wasn’t a great soccer player. I could just shoot. I couldn’t pass. I couldn’t dribble. They would just pass me the ball and I would shoot it into the goal.’’
Every now and then during a soccer practice her coach’s son would have a football and she would mess around kicking it. She opened enough eyes that finally she gave in and tried American football.
“It was the summer before 9th grade, I went to the minicamps,’’ Deptula said. “I tried out and I was so nervous I could barely make extra points. It was really bad. Then, my Dad and I started working on my kicking. Before I was just kicking off the ground, I didn’t know I could use a tee. I mean I really didn’t know much about football. I didn’t even know what a kickoff was.
“I told my Mom I applied for the football team, I actually said applied. And she said, ‘Do you mean football, like soccer, or football, like football.’ I said ‘No, I mean football.
“My mom thought I was crazy. Now, she goes to the games, but she can’t watch when I kick. She’ll watch the whole game, until I come on the field and then she closes her eyes, she says she’s too nervous. My Dad loves it. He’s crazy with it. During the offseason we’ll go out and kick and he’ll chase the balls for me.’’
Over the past three years Deptula has gotten better and better to where she’ll be named The Trenton (N.J.) Times All-Area kicker this fall, and has dreams of maybe playing on the Division III college level.
“She’s really worked hard at it,’’ her high school coach Dan Caruso said. “She doesn’t have the really big leg, but she’s extremely accurate. She never misses an extra point.’’
Deptula’s freshman year she made the team and kicked for both the freshman and the JV teams. By her sophomore year she was on the varsity team that made it to the state sectional finals, the deepest in the playoffs her school had ever gone.
“I’ve done a lot of exercises and drills to get fast-twitch movement,’’ Deptula said. “I try to get my legs in top shape. I run a lot. I’ve worked out a lot. I learned a lot about kicking. I used to just kick, sometimes 200 kicks a day. Now, I kick less every day leading up to a game, so my legs aren’t as tired. I learned to manage my kicking.’’
And in her four years of high school, kicking at every level, there’s never been a problem, not from her teammates who appreciated the fact that she can add points to the scoreboard for them.
“My teammates have been great. There were never any problems with them at all,’’ she said. “They accepted me right from the start. The other teams, it’s kind of funny, when we’re in line after the game they’ll say, ‘Is that a girl? Or is that a guy with really long hair?’ Then they’ll see my nails and say, ‘It is a girl.’’
And don’t get this wrong Deptula is all girl; she just has a penchant for being able to kick a football between the goal posts.
“Oh, I’m a girl, a girly girl,’’ she says with a laugh. “When people hear a girl football player they don’t know what to expect. But I’m a girl. I have long hair; my nails are always done; I’m a shop-a-holic.’’
During the school’s homecoming game this season, Deptula was nominated, although she didn’t win, for Homecoming Queen.
“I wore a tutu around my uniform at halftime,’’ she said.
An only child, Deptula says her teammates are the brothers she’s never had. Her boyfriend isn’t on the team, but comes to all the games to support her.
And there’s never been any problems?
“Just the locker room,’’ she said. “I have my own obviously, and sometimes it’s locked. Or sometimes there’s miscommunication, the coaches will make a last minute change and I don’t know about it. But it always works out.’’
It’s worked out to the point that she’s even become a football fan.
“I watch all the time,’’ she said. “I’m a bigger fan of the defense. I call out the coverages all the time. My favorite player? People tell me my hair is like Clay Matthews’, especially when it was blonder, so I’ve become a Clay Matthews’ fan. My favorite kicker is David Akers.’’
Depending on where she goes to college – she’s planning on going pre-med – she may try to continue to kick, but if not she’s had four great years.
“I’ve learned so much,’’ she said. “The guys and I helped each other out. I was there for them and they were there for me. I’m so happy I did this, and I really love football now.’’