'Amazing': Girl's 45-yard kick brings Harmony to Raceland Middle School football team
A 13-year-old girl made the Raceland Middle School football team after wowing the coach with a 45-yard kick.
Harmony Shae Fitch, 13, made an impression during a practice for a powerpuff football game in which boys were to perform as cheerleaders and girls as football players. She asked coach Allen Wiltz to let her be the kicker, and her kick was better than he'd seen for years.
"I looked at the other coach and was like, 'Holy ****," Wiltz said. "I don't know if you want to quote me on that, but that was the feeling I got. I was like, 'Oh, my God, she's one of the best middle-school kickers ... since I've been here."
The powderpuff game had to be postponed because of storms, but her performance during practice landed Harmony a spot as kicker. She made her debut Thursday as Raceland played Sixth Ward Middle in a jamboree game at Thibodaux High's stadium. And she'll start Sept. 1 against Golden Meadow.
Wiltz said during the practice, most girls didn't know the rules of the sport, and Harmony wanted to show off her kick. She asked to kick off the tee, and he let her, "and the next thing I know it takes off like a rocket."
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"The only reason I learned that she could kick was out of sheer luck," the coach said. "If we wouldn't have had those little powderpuff play-around games, I never would have even entertained it. Because she signed up and she showed me, I was all in."
Wiltz said he's only seen one other kicker like Harmony in seven years as the school's coach, and she's the only girl on the team in at least the past 25 years.
"You ever saw Happy Gilmore? It was kind of like one of those where I ran into her and she kicked one, and I was like, 'Double or nothing. There's no way that you'll do that again.' And sure enough, she lined it up and kicked another one about 45-50 yards," he said.
Harmony has played football with her neighbors for about five years.
"I know some girls want to do football, but they feel like it's a boy's sport, so I wanted to like step up and be the one to do it in Raceland and show other girls that they can do what they want to do," Harmony said.
She added it wasn't an adversarial thing between boys and girls. She just likes the game and thinks other girls should try it.
"I have a very good coach. ... He makes sure that I'm really good, he believes in me," Harmony said. "I always wanted to do it when I was little and I finally had a shot, and all the boys on the team are the best and like big brothers."
Her father, professional boxer Morgan "Big Chief" Fitch, said his daughter told him she wanted to play football and he was supportive — with one condition.
"I said, 'Hold on, you want to play football, you gotta get hard-bodied,' you know what I mean?" he said. " 'I'm not going to send you out there just because that's what you want to do. You've gotta show me you want to do this."
He assigned her workouts at home like push-ups each day to prepare her for the sport, and Harmony took it on with gusto.
"She's just amazing," her father said.
A good kicker, especially in middle school, is invaluable in that it opens doors for the team's strategies, Wiltz said. A deep kickoff, for instance, makes the opposing team have to work much harder to drive down the field to score.
"Last year, I only attempted on-side kicks, which is less than 15 yards, and tried to recover them because we didn't have anyone who could kick it deep," he said. "We didn't even try to kick it deep. Strategically, it didn't make any sense."
Wiltz said Harmony is an all-star athlete and excels at whatever sport she picks up. She also plays volleyball and basketball.
An eighth-grader, this is Harmony's last year at Raceland Middle. She moves on next year to Central Lafourche High, where she plans to focus on soccer. But she said if she can fit football into her schedule, she doesn't intend to give it up.
This article originally appeared on The Courier: Raceland girl gets a kick out of football, she makes the team
