Female football player tests her mettle at Durango

Wearing black and white Reebok cleats and sporting purple nails, No. 68 ran onto the field for pregame warm-ups at Durango High School.

Leslie Espinoza, a 17-year-old senior and offensive linewoman for Durango's varsity football team, was prepping for her final home game Oct. 21, which was Senior Night at the school, 7100 W. Dewey Drive.

After stretching, she joined her male counterparts in a huddle before the kickoff.

Espinoza got in the game for the final play ---- every team's favorite play, the victory formation ---- as Durango beat Sierra Vista High School, 48-35.

The season. The wins and losses. The injuries. It was all worth it for the girl who did not want to play soccer, basketball or volleyball.

"It's a great experience," Espinoza said. "I'm really big when it comes to equality. I've learned to never let anyone tell me I can't do anything."

Had it not been for tragedy, Espinoza would not have been celebrating her team's victory that night.

Donovan Smith, her close friend and a football standout at Durango, died in a car accident in March near the school. Smith had been trying to convince her to join the team, and the two always joked about it.

"After his death, that's one of the goals I put to myself," Espinoza said.

She and her mother, Edelmira Espinoza, met with school administrators to go over the risks involved. For head coach Gary Maki, it was to be his first time having a girl on the team in his more than 20 years of coaching.

"At first I wasn't excited because I had never dealt with it before," Maki said. "I'm thinking of the safety issues. I'm a father of three daughters. I don't want her getting hurt, not under my watch."

And Espinoza did not choose a no-contact position such as a kicker. She's in the trenches, all 5 feet 8 inches and 170 pounds of her, battling with the biggest guys on the team.

Edelmira Espinoza also was concerned about her daughter's safety. But Leslie, her mother said, would not be denied.

"Everything she decides to do, she does," Edelmira said. "I told her, I don't want to hear anything about you getting hurt."

Leslie Espinoza tried her best to adhere to Mom's rule even after she got a concussion in practice. She went home that night and said nothing about it. Mom did not find out until the next day when Leslie visited the school nurse.

Her relationship with the team was "awkward" at first, she said, but now she is just one of the guys.

"She fits right in," Maki said. "She's like a daughter to me and a sister to all the players."

Leslie Espinoza and her teammates will be suiting up in separate locker rooms at least once more in Durango's first playoff game, which is scheduled for Friday at Palo Verde High School.

Contact View education reporter Jeff Mosier at jmosier@viewnews.com or 224-5524.