Tiger Cats' Burnham makes stellar first impression
Female football squad to play first home game Saturday
By Michael Sharp •
mfsharp@gannett.com
• Staff Writer • April 24, 2009
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Ignore for a moment the fact that Kelly Burnham was a standout soccer player at Union-Endicott. Forget briefly that she earned a scholarship to Binghamton University, where she patrolled the midfield for four years.
This story begins earlier than that. It begins in the stands at Maine-Endwell, and at so many other local high school football fields, where Burnham - then just 12 and 13 - would show up weekend after weekend to watch her older brother Ryan Carney play quarterback and safety for the Spartans.
"I went to every single game," she remembered this week. "And every time I watched him, I just wished that I could play."
Well, it's been 10 years or so since those days of cheering on her brother. Burnham graduated from U-E in 2003 and from Binghamton University in 2007, and she's now pursuing a master's degree in Inclusive Childhood Education at BU.
But Saturday night, on the campus of Passaic County Tech in northern New Jersey, that old childhood wish finally came true as she lined up at tailback and safety for the new Binghamton Tiger Cats women's football team.
The Tiger Cats dropped that opening game 21-0 to the New Jersey Titans, but they return to action at 7 p.m. this Saturday at the Greater Binghamton Sports Complex, where they will host the Harrisburg-based Keystone Assault in their first home game of this inaugural season.
"I always wished that they had football for girls," Burnham, 23, said. "I'm competitive, and watching the game of football, you can see how competitive of a sport that it is.
"And I've played sports my whole entire life, but this sport is different than any other sport that I've ever played. I get an adrenaline rush every practice and every game. And I love learning about the game each and every day. It's definitely different ... and I love the challenge."
She also seems ready for that challenge.
Burnham led all Tiger Cats rushers with 83 yards on nine carries last Saturday night, and she impressed from her spot at free safety as well.
"She
was the talk of the Jersey coaches after the game, because she comes out of no where, she's so fast," Tiger Cats coach John Evans said. "She made three tackles in a row on this little running back that Jersey had. She just came out of nowhere, flying, nice angle of pursuit. And ran the alley, and just drove her to the ground. So she's a stud out there at
safety also."
Evans said Burnham approached him early on, telling him she enjoyed running down opponents on the soccer field and that it was a skill she felt she could apply to football. He labeled her athletic, a leader, unafraid of contact. And he said her Division I
background has been evident early on
Kelly gets 'em going in practice," he said. "She's always got her head up, always encouraging people. She's very coachable. You can just tell she plays the game with a passion."
Or perhaps put another way: She plays the game like this is something she's been waiting a decade to do.
"I just had a mix of nerves and excitement, and walking onto the field for the first time was amazing," Burnham said, looking back on last weekend. "It was a feeling I've never felt before, and I just felt like my lifelong dream of playing football had finally come true. And even though we did lose the game, I felt like we won. With each quarter, we got better and better, and we came together as a team."
As for how the new tailback felt the following morning?
"The next day I woke up, and I was extremely sore," she said. "I had bruises all over my body. But when I walked off that field, after we played our first game, I just wanted to go right back out there and play again."
