On game night, the Waterloo High School football kicker puts several hours of practice to work just like every other Bulldog on the field. 

But as soon as the helmet is removed, spectators see there’s something that differentiates this star player.

After WHS junior Lexi Stephens stepped off the club soccer field this summer, her mom jokingly suggested she step onto a different one. 

“(My mom) was like, ‘Your goal kicks go quite far … You should try out to be the kicker for the football team.’ We were like, ‘Ha ha ha, kicker of the football team!’” Stephens said. “Then I went out with my dad because my dad is one of the football coaches at Belleville West, and I kicked a football. I shocked myself. To be honest, I didn’t think I’d kick it that far!” 

After continuing to work with her father – and eventually former NFL punter and current WHS kicking coach Louie Aguiar – Stephens went on to make Bulldogs football history as the first female to score a varsity point. 

On Friday, she bolstered the team’s lead against Carbondale with her first career field goal. She also helped secure Waterloo’s first win over rival Columbia in seven years, going 7-for-7 on extra point attempts on Sept. 3.

Even more impressive, Stephens soared the football through the uprights even without the perfect set up in that game.

“I was talking to our holder Aiden Morrow and he said he actually spun one off the tee and she still kicked it through, so that’s really amazing!” Aguiar gushed about his new kicker. “When I was in high school, my holder spun it off the tee and I missed it … and that was my senior year!”

Both Stephens and Aguiar acknowledge skills she learned during her time as a soccer goalie translate well to the football field. 

“When I explained sliding her foot underneath the ball, she understood that because it’s like taking a goal kick,” Aguiar explained. “When I found out she was a goalie and she took goal kicks, I was like ‘Oh, that’s perfect!’ It makes it easier to teach her.” 

But this did not mean Stephens was able to bypass additional coaching. 

“Although I already had the tactics and the fundamentals of how to kick a ball from soccer, Coach Aguiar completely contributed to how accurate and how far now I can even kick it,” Stephens humbly said. “The first time I got to work with him, it was a totally new world because he corrected all of my steps and made everything to a T in line with how he did it, and it’s awesome.” 

Aguiar said coaching Stephens has been a joy, as she is incredibly receptive. 

Her relative newness to the sport of football also makes his job easier, he said. 

“Usually when I get a kicker, they’ve been kicking for quite awhile on their own, so now I have to get rid of their bad habits,” Aguiar said. “She started kicking this summer, so when I got to her she didn’t really have any bad habits to try to get (her) out of to try to start kicking the way I coach and teach.” 

Stephens said while there is a lot of pressure that comes with her early success on the gridiron, her supportive WHS teammates make all the difference. 

“It’s super cool but it’s also pretty nerve-wracking because you have to keep it up,” she said of her early feats. “But at the same time, it’s not stressful because I have all of my friends. They have my back.” 

With football being a male-dominated sport, Stephens said she was a little wary of how people outside her team would react. However, she ended up being pleasantly surprised. 

“Everyone thinks that it is the coolest thing ever,” Stephens said. “It is so heartwarming because part of me was afraid that people were going to be like, ‘Oh my God, she’s a girl on the football team.’ But it was the total opposite of that. Everyone has been so great and accepting.” 

Throughout his several years working with young players at summer camps, Aguiar has averaged 2-3 girls each summer across 10-15 of each season’s camps. 

“This is the first year that I’ve ever had females on a team that I’ve actually coached, so this is something different for me,” Aguiar said of working with Stephens this season. “(With) Lexi, I don’t treat her any different.” 

Aguiar said he can see the tide shifting to where more women enter the sport of football, as a family from Columbia recently contacted him about coaching their daughter. 

Female football players are not unheard of at Waterloo. Waterloo head football coach Dan Rose said his program has seen several female football players throughout the years. On this year’s junior varsity team, Kyva Meyers, another female player, is a long snapper.

Stephens encourages any women interested in football to give it a go. 

“There’s really nothing bad that can happen. Be brave, be bold, go for it!” she said. 

As for the rest of her first season and potential post-high school football career, Stephens said she is taking it “one day at a time.” 

“Honestly, I just want to make the ball through the uprights,” Stephens said with a laugh. “I just want to have fun with my friends and the coaching staff … and win.” 

With a handful of points already under her belt, it looks like Stephens is off to a great start. 

The Bulldogs return to action Friday at Mascoutah, where they will face the unbeaten Indians.