INDIANAPOLIS - Touchdown. The crowd cheers. Teammates clap each other on the back. It's Friday night, Sept. 29^th, 2017, in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The South Side Archers just scored six points at home against their rivals, the Northside Legends. It's a battle between neighborhoods, and the Archers hold a 21-6 lead over their opponent.
 
One player on the Archers' sideline in particular is shaking. Partially because of the nerves, but also with excitement. As the special team's unit jogs onto the field to kick the extra point, the crowd erupts, cheering even louder than when the home team scored a touchdown. Chanting her name. 
 
Jaci Jones is currently a senior at IUPUI majoring in health sciences, and plays for the women's basketball team as a point guard. Back then, she's South Side's new kicker, and is about to make her debut.  The first female player to play for South Side football in the school's history, Jones worked hard to get to this point. The team hadn't won once in the last six games they played this year. Almost never going for extra points, the coaches opted to try for 2-point conversions instead, which was oftentimes unsuccessful.
 
In high school, as Jones puts it, she "played all the sports." She used to play soccer, and at the time was playing for the girls' basketball team and planning to commit to basketball in college. One day, Jones' assistant basketball coach David Goodwell asked if she'd be interested in playing football.
 
With Goodwell's help, Jones got the phone number of the head football coach.  
 
"I just reached out to the coach, and he let me come on and I went on varsity right away," Jones said when asked how she ended up playing for the Archers. "I had to get ten practices in before I played a game, but that's really how it all went down. Just boom, boom, boom. I ended up on the football team the next week. It was crazy. 
 
"I was excited cause how often do you hear girls are on the football team? Just being a kicker, it was a cool opportunity I couldn't pass up." 
 
Jones' first play as an Archer didn't go as she expected it to. As the ball was snapped, the holder fumbled the ball. She recovered it, and then she too fumbled it. 
 
The worst-case scenario. 
 
An opposing player snatches the football up. He's got open green ahead of him. To the crowd's dismay, the defender is running down the sideline to cut the lead. In that young man's mind, this'll be a score that he remembers for the rest of his life. 
 
Crack. That thought is gone as quickly as it came as the defender is tackled from behind. As he's going down, his heart drops as he realizes there's a suddenly vacant space in the crook of his elbow.  He dives for the football in what becomes a dogpile, but it's already too late. That fond memory he would've looked back on decades later is snuffed out as Jaci snatches it from his grasp. 
 
The crowd cheers Jaci's name again, and simultaneously breathes a sigh of relief. Crisis averted. 
 
The South Side Archers would go onto beat their rivals 35-22 in the North vs. South Battle. However, it was the only game the team won all year, finishing the season with a 1-9 record with 184 total points scored and 414 points allowed. The Archers wouldn't win another football game for almost two years to the date until they defeated the Wayne Generals 46-33 on September 20^th, 2019.  
 
Both of Jones' parents played high school sports. Her dad, Steve, played tennis and baseball in high school, and is a huge sports fan, while her mom, Billi, played basketball. Her older brother, Drake, played football for one year. In short, Jaci grew up in a household that highly encourages playing sports and staying active. Naturally, her parents and her two brothers were the loudest people in the stands when she took the field. 
 
"They were like 'go for it'. It's such a great opportunity for me," Jones said.  "To prove what I can do is beyond what I have done already, and when I did lose the fumble, my dad had it on video, he's screaming 'get out of there get out of there' cause I was focused on basketball and I was pretty much committed as this point [and didn't want me hurt]. They were all for it. Even my high school coaches supported me. Everybody supported me, even the football team. They were so happy for me. Even when I made my first [field goal], they ran out on the field, it was great."  
 
Her brothers thought it was an awesome idea for Jaci to join the football team.  
 
"They backed me up the whole way," Jones said. "They showed up to every game I was at. They cheered me on." 
 
According to a 2022 participation survey from the National Federation of State High School Associations, "girls participation increased 39% from the 2018-2019 survey – 2,604 to 3,633. Additionally, the increase in girls flag football was 40% - 11,209 to 15,716 participants." Adding up the numbers for boys' and girls' participation in all versions of football, girls make up just shy of 2% of the 1,028,976 total players.
 
Interest in flag football is especially growing. In Sept. of this year, the Indianapolis Colts and eight high schools from Indianapolis and South Bend came together to form the Colts High School Girls Flag Football League. Their goal is to make girl's flag football a varsity sport. This would provide a much-needed middle ground for young girls and parents who are wary of injury playing with boys in tackle football.
 
"I think it's a great idea," Jaci said when asked about women playing high school football. "Why not? Show what girls can do. Girls can do more than just play volleyball and all this stuff. I feel like even if they go outside of kicking, I think it's a good thing for women athletes to have that opportunity still to play football, you know? It's mostly a men's sport…I think they're just scared and embarrassed because of what the outside people are going to say to them, in which what I would say is do it. If you wanna do it, just do it. Who cares what people say?" 
 
Jones has played for four years on the women's basketball team at IUPUI. As a multi-sport athlete in high school, she believes that her experience on the gridiron has also helped her on the hardwood playing basketball at the college level, and coaches and teammates have noticed.
"This is only my second year coaching her, but she's an awesome person all around," said Kate Bruce, the head coach of IUPUI women's basketball. "She's fun to be around, very positive, very coachable, and really family-oriented, specifically with her grandma and being at the pond. She's one of our team captains this year, and she's been a terrific leader."
 
"Everybody always congratulates me for playing football," Jones said. "It's such a scary thing getting hit and all that stuff, even though kicker is not a scary position to play…Playing on the women's basketball team here at IUPUI has been a great and fun experience," Jones said.  "I have gained great friendships along the way and made many memories I would never forget about." 
 
Jaci's story is only the beginning. From Sarah Thomas, the first female NFL official who was hired in 2015, to Lori Locust, the first female NFL position coach who also won a Super Bowl with the Buccaneers in 2020, to Sam Gordon, who went to court to make women's football recognized as an official sport in her home state of Utah, these women like Jaci lead a cultural shift in today's era. A cultural shift advocating that the most nationally beloved sport in America isn't just a boy's game. Jaci hopes stories like hers will inspire young girls to follow in her footsteps and give football a shot. 
 
"Just go for it. There's no reason not to," Jones said. "It just shows that women can do more than what they're known for. It shows that we're stronger than they think."