The glare from the stadium lights hit me right in the face as we walked onto the field. I looked around and the bleachers were packed on both sides. People were finally excited and filling the bleachers to come watch us on Friday nights.

After warmups, the four captains stood on our sideline, arms interlocked and we marched across the field to meet County for the coin toss.

We met County at centerfield, referees standing in the middle, coin in hand. County towered above us. I was 5'8 and the guys around me were exactly or over 6 feet and each of the County players standing across from us were at least two or three inches taller than them. It didn't really intimidate me. I was the perfect example of height didn't matter in your position, skill did.

We won the coin toss and chose to kick first. The four of us stuck our hands out to shake and County immediately turned their backs on us, running back to their sideline.

We returned to our sideline shortly after and prepared for the start of the game.

Dominic Jones, our star wide receiver, came up to me before the game.

"They were protesting having to play against a girl," Jones stood behind me and said.

I turned around.

"What?"

"That's why they didn't shake our hands, they don't like that they have to play against you," he explained.

I wasn't really surprised.

"I knew they were going to before the game began, well I didn't actually think they were going to, I just heard they were."

I shrugged, "I appreciate you telling me Jones, but I don't really care."

"I know. I'm not telling you just to tell you, I'm telling you to warn you. Along with the "whole not shaking hands", they said that if you did actually play, they'd hurt you."

"I'll be fine," I wasn't really too concerned about it, I could hold my own.

"No, Maya. You need to take it serious, they've done it before. You have to be careful out there or instead of you leaving the field walking on your own two feet, they'll have smiles across their faces as you leave this field on a stretcher."