Vanderbilt soccer player and sub-in men’s football kicker Sarah Fuller announced Sunday afternoon that she will “participate” in this week’s inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden.
“It’s an honor to be invited to participate in one of America’s greatest traditions. This historic inauguration is especially meaningful for American women and girls. The glass ceilings are breaking and it is the time to #LeadLikeAWoman,” Fuller posted to Twitter, tagging Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.
It’s an honor to be invited to participate in one of America’s greatest traditions. This historic inauguration is especially meaningful for American women and girls. The glass ceilings are breaking and it is the time to #LeadLikeAWoman @KamalaHarris @JoeBiden @BidenInaugural pic.twitter.com/16izLbIqEu
— Sarah Fuller (@SarahFuller_27) January 17, 2021
With beefed-up security measures, Biden will also host a slew of Hollywood performers, including Lady Gaga and Jennifer Lopez. And post-inauguration, stars like Justin Timberlake, Demi Lovato, and Jon Bon Jovi are set to preform too, with actor Tom Hanks as host of the special.
Fuller became a symbol for “female empowerment” in November when she was tapped to kick for the Vanderbilt football team after players Pierson Cooke and Wes Farley were unable to play. The soccer goalkeeper kicked a 30-yard so-called squib kick to start off the second half of a game against Missouri. Vanderbilt lost the game 41 to zero.
Despite the less-than-impressive kick and the Vanderbilt loss, Fuller was named as the SEC’s special teams “player of the week,” an honor she shared with another player.
“Fuller made history Saturday, becoming the first woman ever to officially take the field during a football game in a major conference football game,” the SEC announced at the time.
“She took the opening kickoff of the second half against the Tigers, as her perfectly-executed kick sailed 30 yards and was downed at the Missouri 35-yard line,” the SEC continued. “She joined the likes of New Mexico’s Katie Hnida and Kent State’s April Goss as the only females to appear in a Football Bowl Subdivision contest.”
Following the game in November, Fuller spoke to ESPN reporter Courtney Cronin about her experience, detailing her halftime time speech and her frustration with the other players for not “cheering” their teammates on enough.
“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.’”