In 2003, Katie Hnida kicked two PATs for the University of New Mexico, becoming the first female player to score in a Div. 1 college football game. Nine years later, LSU women’s soccer goalie Mo Isom is trying to become the second (watch her kick a goal-to-goal score below). In tryouts for the team last week, Isom reportedly sent kickoffs near the goal line but struggled with wind.
Can you imagine a woman starting for the LSU Tigers football team before an openly gay man does? She'd surely be the first person ever named homecoming queen…only to start for the school's football team the next year. While we know of at least one gay kicker in Div. 1, he has chosen to stay in the closet for the time being.
In 2003, Katie Hnida kicked two PATs for the University of New Mexico, becoming the first female player to score in a Div. 1 college football game. Nine years later, LSU women’s soccer goalie Mo Isom is trying to become the second (watch her kick a goal-to-goal score below). In tryouts for the team last week, Isom reportedly sent kickoffs near the goal line but struggled with wind.
Can you imagine a woman starting for the LSU Tigers football team before an openly gay man does? She'd surely be the first person ever named homecoming queen…only to start for the school's football team the next year. While we know of at least one gay kicker in Div. 1, he has chosen to stay in the closet for the time being.
Isom is also a god-squadder of the Tim Tebow level. She does not shy away from talking about her love of God, Jesus, the Bible, and the role all three have played in making her the person she is today. Her Web site is called “God’s odds.” Christian doctrine is by far the dominant the dominant force behind her tweets; These happen to be the last three things she posted on her Twitter accout:
It's being billed by some as "a story of hope" and "inspirational." Certainly any time you have someone trying to do what so few have done before, those labels can match (take Diana Nyad's recent distance-swimming attempts as example). But forgive me for being a little cautious when I see the media lining up behind yet another athlete who wants to preach the word of god, given how much that same god is used against gay people.
One other interesting tidbit is that Isom has sworn off kissing guys. The Sporting News seemingly used that to paint her as a lesbian:
But this isn’t a publicity stunt. It’s a challenge undertaken by a woman who lives for such things.
Mo Isom has been well-versed in adversity, which would serve her well if she accomplishes her goal. You want proof? Mo just went an entire year without kissing a guy.
It’s not that she didn’t have plenty of willing partners. You don’t become LSU’s homecoming queen by winning ugly.
Mo went on a monk-like intimacy fast she called “Kissless ‘till Next Christmas.” She wrote about it on her blog and explained it in a Bible verse from Romans.
And then this:
“She was so strong, so curious, so into everything,” Heidi said. “It was like raising a boy.”
Mo’s journey seems sprinkled with fairy dust. She had a 4.06 GPA at Lassiter High in Marietta, Ga. She was Miss Lassiter, she was in all the clubs, she tore it up on the soccer field, she won awards for volunteer work.
Won't kiss boys? Grew up like a boy? Fairy dust? It's almost too much to be coincidental on the part of the writer. It'd be so awesome if Isom turned out to be a lesbian. I remember how easy it was for me to go a year without kissing a girl…maybe it's the same reason it's easy for her to not kiss boys for a year (THAT I couldn't do…).
Photo: Baton Rouge, LA, USA; LSU Tigers soccer star Mo Isom named homecoming queen at halftime of a game against the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers at Tiger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-US PRESSWIRE
