Dominating Boys And Girls With Ease

Football has always been perceived to be a man’s game due to the brutality and harm it inflicts on its participants. Monique Howard experienced the game’s savagery first-hand.

Howard, the Lady Sharks’ new power forward/center, played right tackle during her senior year at Detroit Pershing High School.

Howard, who is six-feet and 195 pounds, is one of the few females to play the violent game at the high school level.

At first her high school basketball coach Sean Hill was skeptical and worried about letting one of his core players play football.

“I worried about her getting hurt,” Hill said. “She was a big part of our team.”

Hill eventually approved, and started supporting Howard’s football endeavor.

But Howard wasn’t worried.

“I wasn’t scared of getting hurt,” she said.

Howard, nicknamed “Mojo”, decided to join the football team because she was intrigued with trying a new sport. Despite entering a male-centric environment, Howard was well-liked and accepted as one of the guys. She held her own on the offensive line and helped Pershing reach the playoffs.

“[My teammates] were excited to have me play on the team,” Howard said. “They treated me like everyone else, everyone was equal.”

Despite being welcomed on the team, the harsh nature of the game caught up with Howard.

Opposing teams would occasionally trash talk to her with profanity and crude jokes. She was even targeted to be taken out of games by opposing players.

“There was one game where the coach from the other team told one of his players to take me out, and after that, I ended up in the hospital with a bruised rib,” she said.

During that game against Finney High School, Howard was targeted after flattening an opposing player on his back. After sustaining the bruised rib, she still played the remainder of the season.

“If it ever got tough for her I wasn’t going to let her quit, if she starts something I want her to finish it,” Hill said.

Howard’s experience of playing football made her a better high school basketball player and prepared her for the collegiate game.  

“It made me more patient in the paint, it also made me faster because of having to run with pads on,” Howard said.

Howard still hopes to attend a Division I college eventually, but is focused on helping the Lady Sharks succeed first by “winning a championship.”

“I’ll help [this team] by rebounding, being a leader, and encouraging teammates,” Howard said.

And her old coach thinks she can.

“She’s a great rebounder, a physical dominant player in the paint, and a scorer,” Hill said. “[She’s] a very hard worker, she hated to lose, and she is just somebody who wants to win badly,” Hill said.