Junior football player makes avon lake history

Erin David and Elena Dusek

Adrenaline rushing through her, heart pumping wildly, one player was about to change Avon Lake football history. Time seemed to stand still as she nervously approached the field, preparing herself for the challenge that lay ahead.

It is unlikely that you haven't heard about Julia Hurd by now; an athlete, she’s known across the area for her accomplishments. As a junior in high school, Julia Hurd had decided to join the football team.

In week two this season, the Shoremen were up against the Berea-Midpark Titans. With a substantial lead of 56 to 14 in the fourth quarter, Avon Lake’s Coach Marsala informed Julia that she would be going in. Julia described it as all happening so fast. “One minute I’m being told I would be kicking the next PAT, and I was overcome with nerves and anxiety,” she says, “and before I knew it, I was going out on the field.” She is referring to when senior running back Gage Duesler scored, increasing the Shoremen’s lead 62-14. With that touchdown, Julia, filled with excitement, knew it was her time to shine.

Hurd lined up for the kick, tuning out everything but the ball and the task at hand. The ball was snapped, and for a fraction of a second, she hesitated, but aimed true, launching the ball through the goal. As the first girl to score in a varsity football game, Julia had made Avon Lake history.

The athlete admits that she had some doubts. “I was super excited and relieved that it went through because the ball had to go so far and I didn’t think I was going to make it. I was still shaken up, but the guys were all super excited for me which was pretty cool.”

Julia explains that she has previously considered the idea of joining the football team. “I’ve always had it in the back of my mind since my freshman year, but I was so nervous because I didn’t know what the guys would think of me. Finally, this year since the football team didn’t have a kicker, I decided I was going to go for it.”

However, she would not have been able to do it without the support of her friends, coaches and teammates. Julia would confide in her friends who ultimately convinced her to talk to Coach Kostelnik. When she did, she was surprised by how supportive he was; Hurd explains that Kostelnik’s admiration for her joining the team was the main factor that pushed her to do so and that without him she would not be playing now.

Julia has definitely put the work in the past year to be where she is now. Since last spring she has attended every meeting, workout, and practice along with the rest of the team while also balancing being on the girls’ junior varsity soccer team. Her schedule is pretty tightly packed, consisting of football practice, football lifting, two football games a week, soccer practice, and two-to-three soccer games a week. During the summer she would attend football practice every morning and then come back to the field for soccer practice every afternoon. During the school year, she is attending football straight after school, where she warms up with the team and continues to practice field goals with the varsity starting kicker Owen Wiley. After about an hour and a half of football, she would go straight to soccer practice for another two hours.

Since the Berea-Midpark game, Julia has gone out to kick two more times at the varsity level this season and made both of them, giving her a perfect record of 3 for 3. Hurd has certainly made everyone at ALHS extremely proud and we look forward to seeing how much more she improves the next season and a half.