Katlynn Harris tried the usual girls' sports. She admits that she wasn't good at any of them.
But football always has been special to the Doniphan High School senior. Two younger brothers play, so did her father and other relatives.
As the Dons embark on their first varsity football season since 1979 this fall, Harris will be among a handful of seniors providing leadership for the team.
It's hasn't been easy getting there for someone who stands 4-feet, 11-inches and weighed 85 pounds on her first day in the weight room as a sophomore. Never mind being the only female among more than 40 boys on the team.
"My brothers started playing when we were little and I always thought it would be fun," Harris said. "But my parents always thought I was too little and didn't want me to play."
Weighing about 50 pounds in elementary school, Harris became a cheerleader for the Doniphan Youth Football League for grades 3-6.
As a sophomore, she found opportunity when football returned to the school system.
"I started lifting weights my sophomore year when coach said juniors would get to play the next year," she said. "But he said if you wanted to play you had to bulk up and get better."
'Bulking up' for Harris has seen her go from 85 pounds to 112 entering her senior year. Impressive for her size, she is among the three strongest female athletes in the weight room for the entire school.
She can bench press 115 pounds, squat 225 and has reached a best of 125 in the power clean "although I'm hoping to go up," she said.
This past spring, she earned a gold medal in the 'ultra-light' class at a weight-lifting meet against the boys at Piggott, Ark.
"She's just one of the guys," Doniphan head coach Jeremy Stout said. "Katlynn's special. She's a very hard worker and she has a 'go get it' attitude."
Adding to the obstacles of being undersized are chronic problems with asthma and bronchitis.
"I've had double pneumonia twice," she said. "My mom (a nurse) was worried so she had me go to a pulmonologist before she would let me play. He said it wasn't a good idea but if I wanted to do it I could do it."
Her asthma has improved as she's built stamina from football workouts.
"I built endurance and weaned myself off a lot of medication," she said. "I still carry a rescue inhaler everywhere but I don't use it very much."
When fall practice opened last season, one of the frequent questions asked around camp was how long Harris might stick around.
"I've seen girls come out for football before but none ever made it through the two-week process in (preseason) practice," coach Stout said.
"I could tell early everyone thought this wasn't going to work but as the season went along they began to tell me I was doing a good job," Harris said. "The coaches have never once not asked me to do something because I'm not a guy."
As a cornerback and receiver, she found herself in the thick of contact in practice. She admits she at least once came close to quitting.
"I got knocked three feet in the air, literally," she said. "And then I learned I'm allergic to grass. So every time I get a cut on the field, it swells up and itches."
She played in every game both on offense and defense in a backup role.
In the season-opener against Hayti, she quickly proved her mettle with an unassisted tackle of a running back who outweighed her by at least 50 pounds.
"That poor guy went back to his bench and the coach was all over him about getting tackled by a girl," she said. "Sometimes the boys on the other teams get a little mouthy. But he was really nice afterwards."
Teammates Devlin Cooper, Tristan Gettings and Michael Turner learned quickly to respect the smallest player on the team.
"At first I thought it was kind of weird having a girl on the team," Cooper said. "But after we got going, you forgot she was a girl. You learned not to take it easy on her because she wasn't going to take it easy on you."
"I've known Katlynn a long time," Turner said. "She always gives 110 percent. She's a heckuva football player."
"I laugh when we play a game because she's probably stronger than half the boys on the other team," said Gettings, the Dons' heaviest player at 300 pounds. "She's tough as nails and won't give in to nothing."
With no home playing field last season, all Doniphan games were played on the road. As the only girl on the team, that meant searching for a different place to dress every game.
"Coach (Kelly) Mayse is our receivers coach so he gets stuck with helping me find a bathroom," Harris said.
At a preseason jamboree at Portageville, a few females seemed surprised to see a player in full pads in the women's restroom.
"I think they thought a guy was in there," she said.
Then there was an incident with a male teacher.
Unaware she was a player, he took offense when seeing Harris wearing her jersey in the halls on game day. He reported to the coaches that one of the players was letting his girlfriend wear his jersey.
"We got such a kick out of it," Harris said. "He's an old track and field guy and is strict when it comes to those things."
One of her favorite teachers, Jean Winston, came to her rescue.
"She told him that she heard he was 'bullying' one of her students and the poor man felt so bad," Harris said. "The funny part is that he's one of the teachers that's very much for equality and always telling us to 'not be sexist, or not be mean.'"
While the jokes about her size and being a woman in a man's sport probably won't stop, she appreciates the lessons she's learned and the friends she's made as a player.
"Coach Stout really pushes us to be just as good in the classroom as you are on the football field," she said. "If you don't have your grade point average you're not hitting the field."
She credits football for increasing her interest in attending college. She hopes to work someday in the pediatric field of medicine.
"I really want to go to college and maybe do cheerleading or something," she said. "Now I know I can play JV football and possibly varsity. I kinda feel like I can do whatever I want."
Added Stout, "I am very, very proud of Katlynn and very proud to see a kid like her in a football uniform."