Felicia Perez didn’t suffer any injuries while playing football for Brandywine High School last season. Unless you consider broken fingers to be injuries, which she does not. “Felicia is tough as nails,” Brandywine head coach Isaiah Mays said last week. “The best way to describe it is she would much rather be the hammer than the nail. She definitely works hard every day, and she has no quit in her.”
“She showed up and she was short, only 4-foot-8,” the coach said. “But she goes to shake my hand, and I noticed from that moment, the firm handshake she gave. Once she did that, I thought she might be a heck of a ballplayer for us. Since that moment, watching her through weightlifting and everything, she’s been awesome.”
“She’s got the most heart of anybody out here,” Brandywine quarterback Jack Russell said. “In our Concord scrimmage last Saturday, she took a hit, probably got blasted back like 6, 7 yards. She just got right back up. Anybody else probably would have stayed down.”
Perez mostly played on the Bulldogs’ junior varsity team last season but did see some varsity action as an offensive lineman on the punt team. The JV team went 0-8 but showed progress in its final game, a 25-14 loss to Mount Pleasant. Their middle linebacker showed progress, too.
This year, Perez is competing for more varsity time during preseason workouts. She’s willing to do whatever it takes, including spilling her guts when the Bulldogs embark on 10 250-yard runs at the end of practice.
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