While Castle Park’s Shayna Hill is believed to be the first female football player to participate in a San Diego Section championship playoff game, the Bonita Visa Barons appear to have cornered the market on female football players.
Sophomore Brooklyn Hawkins is the third female to don football pads for the team in the past five years and the second player to do so in consecutive seasons.
Hawkins joins place-kicker Devon Roncoroni, who competed during the 2011 season. Brittany Voyce — a guard, center and defensive tackle — played last season, making an appearance in the CIF championship game.
Though she’s not necessarily a trailblazer, Hawkins remains one of a handful of females to successfully make a varsity football team’s roster in the section.
“I’ve always loved football because I’ve been around it all my life,” she said.
Football was a natural progression as she followed two older brothers into the sport. Remember Otay Ranch quarterback Kyle Hawkins? That’s Brooklyn’s older brother.
She was recruited to play on the Barons football team after being spotted taking practice kicks during some down time on campus.
A soccer standout on the BVHS girls team, Hawkins started this season on the Barons’ junior varsity football team. She played only three games before she was called up to the varsity team for a non-league game against the Point Loma Pointers on Sept. 16. She kicked two of three extra-point conversions in a 27-20 loss.
Hawkins missed her only extra-point attempt in an ensuing 21-6 non-league setback at Helix on Sept. 30. Her breakthrough performance came Oct. 7 in a non-league game against Castle Park at Southwestern College. She split the uprights on six of eight conversion attempts as the Barons won their first game of the season by a score of 54-8.
“It was amazing,” Hawkins admitted about her varsity debut.
Her longest field goal at the JV level was 32 yards. She’s been close to hitting from the 40-yard range in practice.
“The longer the distance on a kick, the longer steps I take so I can accelerate on my kicks,” she explained. “My goal is to make as many PATs as I can to help the team.”
Hawkins has received support from the school’s student body, particularly other female students.
“Everybody at school comes up to me and congratulates me,” she explained. “The other girls are very inspired by me.”
Her biggest supporter is likely her father, Brandon Hawkins, the school’s quarterbacks coach, and a 1988 graduate of BVHS. He said he is “very, very excited” about this opportunity for his daughter.
“It was Brooklyn who got me coaching over here,” admitted the elder Hawkins, a former football coach at San Ysidro High School. “With myself coaching and two older brothers playing, she has become a student of the game. When I sit down to watch football on Sunday, she sits next to me and she gets right into strategy.
“She knows more about football than most people.”
Does she feel pressure when lining up for a kick?
“I just block it out and focus on finishing my kick,” she said.
Following the football season, Hawkins will return to the soccer pitch as the school’s goalkeeper where she will do a different type of kicking. She’s played the position for eight years, winning a Far Western regional championship last year with the U15 Bonita Rebels club team.
“It was fun — it was an unbelievable feeling,” she said in regard to the regional soccer championship.
The Lady Barons were eliminated in their opening-round playoff match last season. Hawkins, who had four shutouts, would like to see her team advance father in post-season play in 2016-17.
Her goals are to just keep kicking regardless of the type of uniform she’s wearing.
“It’s hard managing two sports but I’m in it through my senior year,” she said.
