Female soccer goalkeeper Sarah Fuller was used as a fill-in kicker for the men’s Vanderbilt football team on Saturday, booting the ball 30 yards in the opening kickoff of the second half.
Fuller was quickly hailed as a hero by the mainstream, and gave a post-game interview with ESPN reporter Courtney Cronin about her experience. According to Fuller, she insisted on giving a halftime speech and told the male players that she wasn’t afraid to call them out for not cheering each other on — a negation that apparently left her “a little pissed off.”
Fuller only started practicing with the men’s team as of Tuesday, noted Outkick.
𝘏𝘌𝘙story made ⭐️@VandyFootball's @SarahFuller_27 becomes the first woman to play in a Power 5 college football game 👏👏 pic.twitter.com/sahSRuOvcC
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) November 28, 2020
“If I’m going to be honest, I was a little pissed off at how quiet everybody was on the sideline,” Fuller told Cronin via a Zoom call, Outkick reported. “We made a first down, and I was the only one cheering and I was like – what the heck? What’s going on? And I tried to get them pumped up, and I was like, ‘You guys need to start [cheering] your team on.
“My main thing was during the SEC tournament, my entire team was cheering the entire time,” she continued. “It didn’t matter if we were in the locker room or if they were on the sidelines, I think that’s what won it for us. Everybody was cheering non-stop.”
“I just went in there, and I said exactly what I was thinking,” Fuller explained. “I was like, ‘We need to be cheering each other on. This is how you win games. This is how you get better, by calling each other out for stuff, and I’m going to call you guys out.'”
“We need to be supporting one another,” she said. “If we get a first down, if an interception happens, it’s our fault. We need to be lifting each other up. That’s what a team’s about.”
“I think this team has struggled, and that’s been part of it,” diagnosed Fuller. “We really just need to build that team camaraderie where they can all lean on one another. It was an adjustment going from that team mentality where – hey, we’re all here supporting one another, and I just wanted to bring that to this team.”
I just got off a Zoom call with Vanderbilt kicker Sarah Fuller, who detailed the halftime speech she gave and the reception it received.
"I had coaches come up to me and say 'I’ve been wanting to say that for awhile now,'" Fuller said. pic.twitter.com/AjoEEjJbeh
— Courtney Cronin (@CourtneyRCronin) November 29, 2020
“I hope I gained their respect. It wasn’t ill-intentioned at all, I just want this team to succeed and do well,” Fuller added. “I’m a Vanderbilt student-athlete. I want all our sports to succeed. I call it how I see it, and I’m not going to BS anybody. Didn’t want to BS them.”
“I had coaches come up to me and say ‘I’ve been wanting to say that for awhile now,’” the athlete claimed.
Sarah Fuller kicks off the second half for Vanderbilt. pic.twitter.com/FvTc7HdVWm
— Jordan Dajani (@JordanDajani) November 28, 2020
Fuller’s 30-yard so-called “squib kick” made her the first female to appear in a football game for a Power 5 school.
Vanderbilt lost the game to Missouri 41-0.
H/t Outkick