Earlier in the 2012 season, Florida quarterback Erin DiMeglio became the first female quarterback to complete a pass in a Florida high school football game. Now, in the camp of females to complete a varsity football pass, she has company on the exact opposite side of the country.
As reported by the Riverside Press-Enterprise, Corona (Calif.) Centennial had two plays during its game against Eastvale (Calif.) Roosevelt High in which it featured a cameo quarterback, with 17-year-old senior Sami Logan coming onto the field. Logan had never played high school football before, but she has been a part of the Centennial program for years, serving as a water girl for her father, Matt Logan, the Centennial head football coach.
On her first snap from scrimmage, Sami Logan fired a pass out of a shotgun formation and connected downfield with fellow senior Jordan Dye. The pass play accounted for 18 yards and helped atone for serious heartbreak for both players, who had designed the pre-scripted read to honor their mothers, both of whom died from breast cancer in recent years.
"It's something we wanted to do to bring awareness to a horrible, horrible disease that affects so many people's lives," Sami Logan told the Press-Enterprise. "This was our way to pay respect to our mothers, others who have lost their fight with breast cancer and those still battling it."
To make the breast cancer memorial play possible, Sami Logan had to participate in two full weeks of full pad practices to be eligible to play. Coach Logan made sure that his daughter fulfilled that requirement, though he limited her to only three plays to learn to keep from over-complicating her exposure to the playbook.
Before the game started, Matt Logan approached Roosevelt's coaches and let them know that Sami might come into the game to honor her mother. The Roosevelt coaches were more than OK with that idea.
In the week leading up to the game, both players admitted being excited and nervous about the play. Then, when Sami Logan finally trotted into the game, both knew it was time to go.
Logan noticed that Roosevelt was in a blitz package (evidently those two weeks of practice and film study paid off), and got her pass off quickly to make sure it would at least get up in the air.
From there, it was up to Dye to complete the tribute.
"I was thinking, 'I have to catch this ball. We might not get another chance,'" Dye said. "Sami had done her job. Now I just had to do mine. …
"I know deep down she saw me make that catch," Dye said of his mother.
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