Scott Radley: These two teen girls are suiting up for some high school playoff football

She was so unsure of herself on the first day of training camp that she didn't get out of the car for, well, she's not sure how long. But it was a while.

All she saw as she looked out the window was 45 guys on the field ready to smash into each other. And her, too, if she opened the door and joined them. It could be awkward, she thought.

My mom was like, Do you want to do it or do you not?'" Francesca Fazzari says.

She did.

Today, the 14-year-old Bishop Tonnos Secondary student is one of the rarest athletes you'll see in high school sports around here. A girl playing tackle football.

And this year, she's not alone.

Across town at Cathedral, Katrina Chacinski was kidding around with her dad one day when he pointed out that he'd played high school and university football but she'd never do something like that. All five-foot-three and 150 pounds of her.

I felt it was mostly a joke," she says. But I took it as a challenge."

On Friday, both will play a junior playoff game. Not against each other. But playing nonetheless.

Chacinski (pronounced Cha-kin-ski) has a half-black belt in karate so she's comfortable in rough sports. Getting hit wasn't a concern. She's also played baseball, she referees soccer and has been a competitive swimmer - she's taking her Bronze Cross these days - so athleticism was no issue.

Even so, she was a little nervous when she showed up at tryouts and was told to go line up as a linebacker. Which guarantees contact. And when she slammed into someone that first time?

That was pretty fun," she thought.

Even so, her real concern was not the physicality but earning her playing time. Not being treated differently by coaches, teammates or opponents.

I don't want to be an honorary player," she says.

So she went hard. And hit guys. And kept hitting. In the team's first game of the season, she had seven tackles and was the defensive player of the game.

If her path to the gridiron was somewhat natural, Fazzari's was a little less so.

The Grade 9 student played girls' flag football for a few years so she knew the game and had developed enough of a love for it that she wanted to take the next step and try the tackle variety. She's been involved in volleyball and basketball, too. But her sporting background hadn't exactly been filled with violent, high-contact activity.

I was a competitive dancer for a lot of my life," she says. I quit to do football."

To say that hip hop, jazz and contemporary aren't the traditional path to the gridiron would be a rather substantial understatement. Furthermore, she arrived as a receiver so unlike Chacinski, she wasn't going to be delivering the hits but receiving them.

She wasn't scared of being hit. Still, in the beginning, she thinks the guys were uncomfortable tackling her hard. But when she popped up after the first big shot she absorbed, she was just another player.

Mostly.

She laughs when tells the story about lining up for a play early in her first game. Right before the ball was snapped, the guy covering her glanced up and saw her face and ponytail.

Oh my god, it's a girl," he said.

If she laughs while retelling it, she laughed even harder as it happened. She didn't take it as an insult. Especially when that same guy came up to her at the end of the game and said he respected her for being out there. As that moment, he was truly surprised. With reason.

Chacinski's coach, Mario Susi, says seeing a girl on the high school football field around here is still unusual. He was hoping to see more girls in the game this season as an opportunity for everyone to get active after the long COVID-19 layoff, no matter what dressing room they changed in. Even two is a start, though.

It's two more than we had five years ago," he says.

Actually, there should've been a third. St. Mary's Niamh Till was injured before the season started and hasn't played in a game. And there have been some female players in years past. Not many, though. The public school board says it has no girls playing football this year.

But the two that are active are now in their playoffs. On Friday at 1 p.m., Chacinski and her Cathedral side will face St. Mary in a semifinal. Two hours later, Fazarri and her Tonnos teammates will kick off against Bishop Ryan.

Because of the brackets, they can't meet this year. Which is too bad. That would have been unprecedented. One covering the other in a game would've been fun.

Chacinski is now playing safety. She'll be all over the field. She's pretty relentless.

As for Fazzari, she hasn't scored a touchdown yet. But she will at some point. Which will give her a unique opportunity since crossing into the end zone carries that opportunity to do some kind of celebration.

As a dancer, has she prepared anything for that moment?

No," she laughs. I think I'd be so in shock I wouldn't know what to do."

Scott Radley is a Hamilton-based columnist at The Spectator. Reach him via email: sradley@thespec.com