Kicking Queen

October 4, 2011 4:22 AM

Brianna Amat, 18, of Pinckney High School in Ann Arbor, kicked the game-winning field goal against rival Grand Blanc on the same night that she was crowned homecoming queen (SLNYT).
posted by dabug (66 comments total)

I smell a disney movie in the works.
posted by Fizz at 4:29 AM on October 4, 2011 [5 favorites]

Looks like she was kicking from about 15 yards out from the left hash mark. That makes it a 22 yard field goal from a tough angle for a right-footed kicker. Nice job.
posted by three blind mice at 4:39 AM on October 4, 2011 [1 favorite]

I always wondered what a 'Homecoming Queen' was, and now I know.
posted by GallonOfAlan at 4:40 AM on October 4, 2011 [1 favorite]

Also... great photo!
posted by jscott at 4:41 AM on October 4, 2011

Yeah not to rain on the parade cause I think this is a nice story but everyone is reporting it as a 31 yarder. Which it is, but you don't factor in the end zone when reporting the length of a FG.
posted by nathancaswell at 4:43 AM on October 4, 2011

Everybody run
The homecoming queen has got a
better leg than Virginia Tech's special teams this year.
posted by Wolfdog at 5:03 AM on October 4, 2011 [24 favorites]

A true Lebowski Urban Achiever.
posted by punkfloyd at 5:03 AM on October 4, 2011 [1 favorite]

but you don't factor in the end zone when reporting the length of a FG.

Yes you do.
posted by King Bee at 5:16 AM on October 4, 2011 [9 favorites]

but everyone is reporting it as a 31 yarder.

Well except me and I was wrong.

Which it is, but you don't factor in the end zone when reporting the length of a FG.

Sure you do. As well as adding in the 7 yards from the line of scrimmage for the snap. A field goal made from a ball starting on the 10 yard line is a 27 yard field goal.

Going back to the link I posted, the ball looks like it's placed inside the 10 - say 8 yards - with the snap to the holder, add another 7 yards and the ball is kicked from the 15 yard line - 25 yards to the goalpost. So a 25 yard field goal - again from a tough angle for a right-footed kicker.
posted by three blind mice at 5:20 AM on October 4, 2011

HAIL TO THE VICTORS VALIANT HAIL TO THE CONQUERING HEROES HAIL HAIL TO MICHIGAN THE LEADERS AND THE BEST!
posted by spicynuts at 5:26 AM on October 4, 2011 [3 favorites]

Dunno about Michigan, but Brianna Amat sure is the best. Wow.
posted by likeso at 5:28 AM on October 4, 2011

Pinckney High School is in Pinckney, which is not Ann Arbor (about 30 miles away).
posted by to sir with millipedes at 5:28 AM on October 4, 2011 [6 favorites]

Yes, that's what makes this unusual—in Ann Arbor it would have been just another story of an all-the-kids-are-above-average overachiever, but Pinckney is a small town in a county where, until quite recently, the KKK was very active.
posted by texorama at 5:30 AM on October 4, 2011 [2 favorites]

She should have worn her ball gown when she took the shot.
posted by uncanny hengeman at 5:30 AM on October 4, 2011 [4 favorites]

Whoops, I'm wrong, coffee time
posted by nathancaswell at 5:32 AM on October 4, 2011 [2 favorites]

Cool. But I hope someday this kind of news is so common no one will bother to report it anymore.
posted by tommasz at 5:33 AM on October 4, 2011 [8 favorites]

Pinckney High School is in Pinckney, which is not Ann Arbor

Argh you're right, I think I was thinking of Pioneer. Been away from Ann Arbor too long!
posted by dabug at 5:35 AM on October 4, 2011

I don't know why, but this has been stuck in my head since reading this article. Sorry, good on you Ms. Amat!
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 5:38 AM on October 4, 2011

I smell a disney movie in the works.

I smell a HORROR movie in the works.
posted by entropone at 5:38 AM on October 4, 2011 [3 favorites]

wow. she's got so much juice right now. zero fear of slushies. quinn and finn must be so jealous.
posted by pandrus at 5:43 AM on October 4, 2011 [1 favorite]

I was once kicked by the homecoming queen. Does that count for anything?
posted by diogenes at 5:49 AM on October 4, 2011 [9 favorites]

Depends. Did she split the uprights?
posted by Wolfdog at 5:54 AM on October 4, 2011 [20 favorites]

I smell a HORROR movie in the works.

What?
posted by kmz at 5:54 AM on October 4, 2011

King Bee: "but you don't factor in the end zone when reporting the length of a FG.

Yes you do"

If you're talking Canadian Football, yes.
posted by ArgentCorvid at 5:59 AM on October 4, 2011 [1 favorite]

Double-casting the winning field goal kicker and the homecoming queen? Must be a small school.
posted by Faint of Butt at 6:05 AM on October 4, 2011 [2 favorites]

the ball is kicked from the 15 yard line

We're getting caught up in the wrong part of the story but, in the video above, the ball is snapped from the 15 and she's kicking from the 21. So, yeah a 31 yard field goal.
posted by srw12 at 6:08 AM on October 4, 2011

People think it's so easy
To kick a field goal from the 30 yard line
They forget to add seven yards for the snap
And 10 more 'cause the goal posts are pushed way back
posted by Philosopher Dirtbike at 6:11 AM on October 4, 2011

When I was I high school the hottest guy I had ever seen worked at the Pinckney lumber yard. Which is all I remember despite growing up less than ten minutes away. In general, Livingston is not an an area I would expect to see this in. I don't know football, but she must be somewhat impressive to get the chance.
posted by MaritaCov at 6:12 AM on October 4, 2011 [1 favorite]

A girl accepting a Homecoming tiara wearing football pads, kicking the winning field goal and then going home to get up early and work on maintaining her 4.0 GPA... This is what progress looks like.

Everybody else: get to work.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 6:19 AM on October 4, 2011 [13 favorites]

If you're talking Canadian Football, yes.

*sigh*

OK, we're putting this to rest. A couple weeks ago, Sebastian Janikowski kicked a 63-yard field goal, tying an NFL record.

Look at where the ball is spotted when he kicks it. It is at the Oakland 47-yard line, or 53 yards away from the goal line. So, yes, you do add the length of the end zone.
posted by King Bee at 6:19 AM on October 4, 2011 [3 favorites]

I for one welcome our new football-playing, home-coming queen overlords! *tosses rose petals in the air before their red carpeted path*
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 6:23 AM on October 4, 2011

*tosses rose petals in the air before their red carpeted path*

TWEET!

Personal Foul. Rosing The Kicker. Defense #112840. 15 comment penalty and an automatic first down.
posted by eriko at 6:30 AM on October 4, 2011 [9 favorites]

If you're talking Canadian Football, yes.

Because Canadian football has the goalposts *on* the goal line, not at the back of the end zone.
In any case, Brianna's kick was far from easy.
posted by rocket88 at 6:30 AM on October 4, 2011

OK, but however you measure it it's still the longest game-winning field goal kicked by a homecoming queen with a 4.0 GPA.
posted by Floydd at 6:38 AM on October 4, 2011 [10 favorites]

It is at the Oakland 47-yard line, or 53 yards away from the goal line.

Was Sebastian Janikowski's 63-Yard Field Goal the NFL's Longest 63-Yarder?

[Tom] Dempsey's holder, Joe Scarpati, clearly places the ball on the Saints' 37-and-a-quarter-yard line—the goalposts were on the goal line in those days—for what would measure out to a 62-and-three-quarters-yards kick.
…
It's difficult to tell precisely from this video, but Broncos holder Tom Rouen's spot of [Jason] Elam's kick appears to be on the front edge of the hashmark at the Broncos' 47-yard line...So the make was an honest 63 yards.
…
Watch Raiders holder Shane Lechler's right hand in the first two seconds of the video. His fingers caress the turf an inch or two behind the hash mark at the Raiders' 47—which would make Janikowski's distance five or six inches longer than Elam's.

However:

"If all of the ball rests between yard stripes, credit distance from the yard line nearest the intended goal."...In other words, round down. By that definition, Janikowski's kick of 63 plus an inch or two is officially 63—and Dempsey's should be 62.

posted by kirkaracha at 6:51 AM on October 4, 2011

OK, but however you measure it it's still the longest game-winning field goal kicked by a homecoming queen with a 4.0 GPA.

Another Dave Culter records falls! I never thought I'd see the day...
posted by mazola at 6:52 AM on October 4, 2011 [1 favorite]

This is awesome. I can't wait to show my 10-year-old daughter this story.

OK, but however you measure it it's still the longest game-winning field goal kicked by a homecoming queen with a 4.0 GPA.

This is true. I believe Jim O'Brien was only pulling a 3.6 when he won Super Bowl V.
posted by Rock Steady at 7:07 AM on October 4, 2011 [1 favorite]

If you're talking Canadian Football, yes.

Because Canadian football has the goalposts *on* the goal line, not at the back of the end zone.

Thank you for clarifying. Until that point, the derail was making no sense to me whatsoever -- my maple-soaked Canadian brain could only recall goalposts *on* the line, and it had never occured to me that they might be elsewhere.

In any event, congratulations, Brianna!
posted by Capt. Renault at 7:11 AM on October 4, 2011

Jock is popular, film at eleven.

(in a post-sexism world, this wouldn't be news. Someday?)
posted by Eideteker at 7:18 AM on October 4, 2011

Perhaps this is an America thing that I don't understand, but I honestly don't see why getting crowned a something-or-other at school and then scoring a goal merits a post on Metafilter. Or anywhere outside a school magazine or local newspaper, really.
posted by Decani at 7:47 AM on October 4, 2011 [1 favorite]

I remember when Kathy Ireland kicked a field goal, and the guy from Quantum Leap was like, daaaaaaamn!
posted by Brocktoon at 7:48 AM on October 4, 2011 [2 favorites]

I smell a disney movie in the works.

Okay, congrats to her but, really? Yes, I too hope to be inspired by the story of a girl in an upper-middle class neighborhood overcoming adversity through her sheer popularity, athletic ability and physical attractiveness alone.
posted by XQUZYPHYR at 7:50 AM on October 4, 2011 [2 favorites]

Perhaps this is an America thing that I don't understand, but I honestly don't see why getting crowned a something-or-other at school and then scoring a goal merits a post on Metafilter. Or anywhere outside a school magazine or local newspaper, really

It's news because football is a sport that is overwhelmingly played by boys, even at the high school level, so the presence of girls playing football is still fairly new. It's also true that the stereotypical Homecoming Queen is a super feminine "girly-girl," not someone who plays on the football team. Obviously that last point is blunted somewhat by the fact that she's a kicker, a position that doesn't require you to be a not conventionally attractive body size/shape, but it still cuts against some stereotypes in an interesting way.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 7:55 AM on October 4, 2011 [2 favorites]

Some pictures of Amat in her jersey and tiara. (None from the game itself, though, apparently.)
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:55 AM on October 4, 2011

in a post-sexism world, this wouldn't be news

Yeah. The problem's not fixed, so fuck the fact that progress is being made.
posted by The Ultimate Olympian at 8:01 AM on October 4, 2011

Perhaps this is an America thing that I don't understand, but I honestly don't see why getting crowned a something-or-other at school and then scoring a goal merits a post on Metafilter. Or anywhere outside a school magazine or local newspaper, really.

It's not an America thing. I'm American and my response to the FPP was "Why is this on Metafilter? Is this news?" I figured the interesting bit must be in the article somewhere, so I read that, and it turns out that it isn't. There's just nothing here.
posted by IAmUnaware at 8:01 AM on October 4, 2011

I thought SLNYT meant "single link not YouTube", so I said to myself, OK, if it's not YouTube, what is it? So I moused over the link and was enlightened.
posted by Crabby Appleton at 8:15 AM on October 4, 2011 [1 favorite]

It's also true that the stereotypical Homecoming Queen is a super feminine "girly-girl," not someone who plays on the football team.

Why is it considered so weird that a girl on a sports team would be a shoe-in for Homecoming Queen- a status pretty much solely defined by how popular and attractive a person is, of which both attributes are easily attained by being fit and playing high school sports? I dunno, I mean I know in high school the girls I generally found the most attractive were the ones who played sports too because, whaddaya know, being active on a sports team tends to mean you're keeping your body fit. I dunno I guess I always just find these "gasp! A GIRL who plays SPORTS is POPULAR?" notions bizarre.

Yeah. The problem's not fixed, so fuck the fact that progress is being made.

What progress was made here? I'm not being snarky; this is a legitimate question. I have no idea how this was somehow a leap for feminism or gender equality, or for that matter what previous adversity this girl somehow overcame by being good at a sport while simultaneously being thought of as pretty and popular by the majority of her classmates, or even how being voted Homecoming Queen is somehow a blow against sexism.

Statements like this make me feel like I'm being told to just assume there's something more than "nice thing happens to person" to this story and when I'm not presented it I just find it all aggravating.
posted by XQUZYPHYR at 8:19 AM on October 4, 2011 [2 favorites]

Perhaps this is an America thing that I don't understand, but I honestly don't see why getting crowned a something-or-other at school and then scoring a goal merits a post on Metafilter. Or anywhere outside a school magazine or local newspaper, really.

Imagine somebody scoring the winning goal for Liverpool in a match against Man U, then winning Miss UK or whatever, just on a smaller scale.
posted by kmz at 8:20 AM on October 4, 2011

Our homecoming queen was also on the football team. What a badass.
posted by melatonic at 8:23 AM on October 4, 2011

It's probably not as big of a deal as it's being made out to be, but the main reason this is news is that girls on a football team are still incredibly rare. Full stop.
posted by kmz at 8:26 AM on October 4, 2011

No one else remembers the Helen Hunt movie Quarterback Princess? It was based on Tami Maida, the quarterback and homecoming queen of her Oregon high school.
posted by gladly at 8:35 AM on October 4, 2011 [2 favorites]

I think this is great. The fact that this girl was able to make it on the football team -- through strength and skill, and likely overcoming institutional resistance to doing so -- AND get chosen for something that's traditionally feminine rather than being penalized for taking part in a "masculine" activity, is fantastic. It means that she's not being pigeonholed into one thing or another, but can do everything she wants to do. That's progress, for sure.
posted by cider at 8:41 AM on October 4, 2011

Someday, we'll also have a sarcasm-impaired Homecoming Queen. Won't someone think of the disabled?

And geez, you'd think the fact that I bothered to spell out my jokes in more detail rather than just leaving them context-less would REDUCE grar.
posted by Eideteker at 8:46 AM on October 4, 2011

If you spell out your jokes very carefully and tens of thousands of people still uniformly fail to find anything funny in them, that's nature's little way of telling you something.
posted by Wolfdog at 9:06 AM on October 4, 2011 [1 favorite]

if we focus on her ability as a kicker and not concern ourselves with the fact she is a girl or homecoming queen which would be real progress, then kicking the game winner was good, but it was her fault they were behind. She missed a PAT earlier in the game. Score was 7-6 when she kicked the FG.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 9:16 AM on October 4, 2011

My high school didn't have a homecoming queen or a football team. So although I am from the US I still don't have the same visceral appreciation for why this is awesome as some people do.

If I remember correctly, at some point T-shirts were made: "FCS football, undefeated since [sometime a long time ago]". Apparently we used to have American football until people started playing soccer.)
posted by madcaptenor at 9:17 AM on October 4, 2011

"If you spell out your jokes very carefully and tens of thousands of people still uniformly fail to find anything funny in them, that's nature's little way of telling you something."

Learn to speak Tlingit?
posted by Eideteker at 10:39 AM on October 4, 2011

I dunno I guess I always just find these "gasp! A GIRL who plays SPORTS is POPULAR?" notions bizarre.

The thing is, it's not a girl who plays some sort of amorphous "sports," she's doesn't play soccer or softball or basketball, she plays football; as has been pointed out up thread, the number of girls playing football is incredibly low, because it's generally seen as not "ladylike" and inappropriate for girls, the fact that a girl who is also engaged in the traditionally feminine activity of being Homecoming Queen plays football is unusual, even if it's not unprecedented. To cast it as "popular girl plays sports" ignores the gender politics of girls playing football, which is ignoring a whole lot.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 10:47 AM on October 4, 2011 [3 favorites]

she's doesn't play soccer or softball or basketball, she plays football;

No, she's a longtime soccer player (this seems to be not rare among kickers, at least in high school):

The twin accomplishments were still sinking in Monday, said Amat, a senior who has played soccer since she was 3 but who tried out for the football team only last spring, at her soccer coach’s suggestion.
posted by rtha at 11:16 AM on October 4, 2011

I think some folks are casting about looking for some snark in this story, or a way to find some mythical "other perspective".

The thing is, Brianna Amat has proven that the changes so many others have struggled to make are worth the fight. A woman can play football and doesn't have to give up her femininity to do so. That's progress. Now we can complain about the fact that "homecoming queen" being representative of femininity is itself a problem, or that she isn't an ethnic minority from a working class neighborhood, or that she didn't have to crawl out from a hospital bed to make the game winning kick and save Flash Gordon from Emperor Ming - but all those are red herrings. Appreciate her success for what it is, and let's work to provide these opportunities for more people. God knows we can use some good news.
posted by Xoebe at 11:24 AM on October 4, 2011 [6 favorites]

Heh, I read it first as "he was crowned homecoming queen."

Drat.

OK, but however you measure it it's still the longest game-winning field goal kicked by a homecoming queen with a 4.0 GPA.

Cite?

Honestly, this seems like a story from 1987. Girls have been football kickers for a looong time now. Heck, I'm pretty sure my city had a few when I was in high school.

Hell, see Sally Gutierrez, 1975. It looks like she played a non-special teams position and actually made some tackles.

So yeah, yawn. Wake me up when a starting QB (of either sex) wins the homecoming queen.

she's doesn't play soccer or softball or basketball, she plays football

No offense to anyone or Brianna, but kicking in football is really not like "playing football." It's like playing goaltender and claiming you play soccer. /snark
posted by mrgrimm at 3:01 PM on October 4, 2011

So yeah, yawn. Wake me up when a starting QB (of either sex) wins the homecoming queen.

Psst, wakey-wakey
posted by gladly at 3:25 PM on October 4, 2011 [1 favorite]

Cool. So we're all agreed there's very little newsworthy here, unless of course you go to that high school.
posted by mrgrimm at 9:58 AM on October 5, 2011

For context, 30 years ago and 20 miles away, I was told that, yes, it was my legal right to go out for the high school football team, but I'd have to shower and change with the guys. My protection could not be guaranteed. This was all said with a leer.

Still, while I'm willing to give her credit for kicking a good field goal and for her GPA, the homecoming queen thing is, at best, a distraction and, more likely, just another example of how a woman's looks get put before her accomplishments.
posted by QIbHom at 1:09 PM on October 5, 2011 [1 favorite]

It is completely weird to find Grand Blanc, of all places, in an FPP. And when did they rearrange leagues, pushing Grand Blanc southward?
posted by Goofyy at 5:50 AM on October 6, 2011