What if they made a movie about a girl kicking the winning field goal in a football game of great importance?
Oh, wait, they already did.
Now, what if it wasn’t a movie.
What if it really happened?
Oh, wait, it already did.
Last Friday night, with an Ohio High School football playoff berth hanging in the balance, junior Andi Meeks was trying to stay warm on the sideline as the final seconds ticked off the clock in a Central Buckeye Conference game between Springfield Shawnee and Jonathan Alder High Schools.
Andi was cheering for the Braves.
Not because she’s a cheerleader.
Because she’s the kicker.
That’s right, Andi is a first-team, all-CBC soccer player for Shawnee, but she’s also the kicker on the football team.
Coached by her dad, Rick.
So when the clock ticked under 10 seconds Friday night, with the ball at the Alder 8-yard line, Rick called out, “Field goal. Field goal.”
And a Hollywood moment happened.
Andi not only made the kick, but the resulting victory elevated Shawnee into the playoffs for the first time in five years.
“I was freaking out,” Andi told Spielman & Hooley on Sports Radio 105.7 The Zone on Wednesday. “I was jumping up and down. It was freezing cold. It was raining. I was jumping up and down trying to keep my feet from freezing off. All my teammates were like, ‘You can do this. It’s just like practice.’ “
After the kick sailed through the uprights, it landed in the arms of a boy standing beyond the end zone.
That young man, of course, was Andi’s brother.
The Braves (6-4) play Clinton Massie (9-1) on Friday night at 7 p.m. in the first round of the Division IV, Region 16 playoffs.
As for the football Andi kicked to secure a post-season berth?
You might think it would be on the mantle at the Meeks’ home.
But you’d be wrong.
“It’s actually still in the ball bag,” Rick Meeks said. “We’re using it for practice.”
Listen to the full interview below: