Santa Clara’s Blassingame gets kick from playing in the trenches
SANTA CLARA >> Brian Blassingame had a good reason to pull out his camera phone and point it toward the field as he helped with the sideline yard markers at the Santa Clara-Wilcox football game.
Out there in the sea of humanity was his daughter, Racquel, all 5-foot-1 of her. Kicker? Heck no. Racquel, a Santa Clara senior, was lined up as a nose tackle Friday night.
It didn’t matter that it was the final minutes of a blowout game that Santa
Clara would lose.
In quite possibly the last tackle football game Racquel will play — Santa Clara isn’t likely to make the playoffs — Brian was beaming as he told a reporter that was his daughter in the middle of the defensive line.
The game was notewor
thy because it was Wilcox’s first since allegations two weeks earlier that some members of the football team directed homophobic slurs at a freshman male on the school’s cheer squad.
Wilcox’s cheer team Friday, more than two dozen strong, had three males rooting on the winning side as the school heals from what its principal, Kristin Gonzalez, called a “very painful week.”
Santa Clara’s football team included a girl who has played two seasons on varsity and has no fear lining up in the middle of the trenches.
When the game ended, Racquel posed for pictures with her dad and mom, Carin Taylor. She then spoke about why she has a passion for football.
“Football as a whole is just amazing, and it’s so intense,” said Racquel, who also plays high school softball. “I love it. Football really represents life in a way. It teaches you life skills that you couldn’t really get anywhere else. It’s an amazing sport.”
Typically, girls who play high school football do so to kick. Racquel wanted no part of that stereotype.
“I’d rather knock heads than kick,” she said. “I feel like if I am going to play football, I am going to be doing it how everybody else is doing it.”
Just as her dad was excited while watching on the sideline, Racquel’s mother was all smiles after the game.
“I am so proud of her,” Carin said. “It’s awesome to see her out there because she’s the first girl to play for Santa Clara in a very long time. To see her out there and not have her be a kicker and have her on the line is pretty exciting. It’s nice to see her in there battling with the boys and not afraid.”
Asked if she gets nervous, Carin said, “No. Not at all. Not anymore because she’s so tough. She’s played sports her entire life. We don’t get nervous anymore.”
Added Brian, “If we didn’t think she’d be tough enough, she wouldn’t have been out here. She wanted to play, and she did. She did great. The whole team treated her like any other player. The only difference is she’s got to have her own locker room. Other
than that, the whole season last year and this year, she was just another player.”
Racquel had hoped to play football all four years at Santa Clara, but her parents initially did not give her the green light.
But Racquel kept asking, and they eventually gave in.
“She kind of beat us down and it was like, ‘OK, let’s let her play,’” Carin said. “I think because she’s so aggressive and solid and confident in herself that she’s gotten out there and done a really good job.”
Softball is next for Racquel, but football might not be completely in her rearview mirror.
“She actually wants to get into coaching football,” Brian said. “I have a friend up at Foothill College, and she’s been on their sideline at all their games.”
Santa Clara coach Burt Codera commended the player he called “Rocky” for her commitment. He noted that she asks questions, takes notes and studies.
”She’s been dedicated and working her tail off,” he said. “She’s going to come back and coach for us, hopefully, next year and hopefully make a career out of this.”