Samantha Grisafe of Redlands, California began her football-playing career with a little league team. While she played mostly at quarterback, Sami did get in some playing time at linebacker. Her story was written in the Redlands Daily Facts newspaper and can be found at the following link: http://homepages.lycos.com/presspass1/lypersonal/girlqb.html. ("An Open Field: Story of a girl quarterback," by Obrey Brown. Redlands Daily Facts. November 9, 1998) Sami helped lead her team, the Terrier Midgets, to a divisional championship. At age thirteen in 1998, Sami stood 5'11" and weighed 165 pounds.
Sami continued to play football in high school. Her mother, Kim Grisafe, picks up the story, which is excerpted from an e-mail she sent me.
Samantha went on to play high school football. [In 2000] she was on the Varsity team at Redlands High School in Redlands, California. Redlands High School in as CIF Southern Section (Southern California) Division I high school. (Division I is the highest division in California.) On November 10, 2000, Samantha became the first girl in Southern California Division I football to play in a varsity game at quarterback, and she converted a first down. . .we may even think she was the first to play at ANY position at the Division I level in Southern California. . .but are not sure of this (because of the lack of info and stats on girls). As a freshman, she was called up to the varsity playoffs last year (1999) and became the first girl even suited up for a CIF SS Division I playoff game. the game was against powerhouse Mater Dei, who went on to become co-champions with Long Beach Poly that year. I have video of the Mater Dei game taking second looks at Sam through the handshakes at the end of the game. :o)
. . .She got a touchdown in a JV game on November 9, 2000. It could quite possibly be the first time a girl has scored in a Division I Southern California high school game (but again. . .with the lack of stats, I don't know). Her team won the league championship.
. . .Sami is writing a screenplay herself about her adventures on the gridiron and would have a lot to add.
I would like to thank Mrs. Kim Grisafe for the e-mail and the information she sent.
