Despite opposition from her teammates and others, 14 year-old Azarrieah Brooks followed her dream of playing high school football.

Brooks has played other sports in her lifetime even junior high football at Whittier, but she was determined to be the only girl to play on the freshman football team at Southview.

Brooks attended two-a-days and practiced every day in hopes of proving herself and her dedication to her coaches and teammates.

Beside getting ribbed by classmates and others, Brooks also endured through injuries such as bruised ribs, a pulled muscle in her shoulder, a rib contusion, hairline fracture and cracked bones in her hand, and lots of other bruises.

Despite the obstacles and injuries in her way to play football — she never gave up.

“I worked hard all and I was looking forward to the season,” Brooks said. “I wasn’t going to let it go just like that. I figured I started with the team so I was going to finish it with the team.”

Brooks wasn’t sure playing football was such a good idea after her first practice.

“When I first started, I got the cold shoulder from a lot of players,” Brooks said. “The coach thought I was in it for the guys. I told him ‘I’ll prove you wrong, I’m not here for them. I’m here to play a sport that I love to play.’

“Everybody thought that I would quit. I made bets with the varsity players that I wouldn’t quit. Nobody believed me, but now that I made it to the end of the season, everybody sees that I did it for the team.”

She proved the doubters wrong and despite a season-ending injury to her right hand, she stuck it out through the season and even got in for a couple of plays in the Saints’ last game — an 11-0 win over crosstown rival Admiral King.

“I always thought it would be fun to play after watching my brothers play,” said Brooks, who played left tackle and nose guard. “You gotta have a lot of endurance. It’s a lot different from middle school football.

“Sometimes I felt like quitting. My family supported me a lot. They told me to keep pushing and keep going. The coaches even told me ‘Don’t listen to what everybody says, keep pushing for yourself. Don’t do it for anybody else, do it for you’. I told myself no matter what injuries I get, I’m gonna finish off strong. Even if I had to go out there with a broken foot, I’m going to go out there and play with a broken foot. I was in pain, but I did it for myself and to prove everybody else wrong. I started the season off and I finished the season.”

She thanks the doubters for giving her the motivation to stick it out through the season and prove them wrong, while also thanking her family, especially her aunt Carlotta for being her biggest fan. She also thanked her teachers, coaches and friends who also supported her.

The highlight of her season is when she sacked Sandusky’s quarterback on the first play in the first game. She felt at that time, she earned the respect of her teammates.

While playing defensive tackle, nose guard and middle linebacker for Whittier’s eighth grade team last season, she led the Warriors in tackles and sacks.

And now this year’s injuries have caused a concern from her doctor, who suggested she not play the grueling sport anymore.

In the meanwhile, Brooks plans to join Southview’s new swim team this winter and join the track team in the spring to throw the shotput and discus. She still plans to attend Saints’ football games in the future and will continue to support her former teammates.

Her biggest lesson learned this season was that no matter how tough things seem, you just have to keep going.

“You gotta keep your head up no matter what goes on,” Brooks said. “No matter how much negative you have around you. You can’t give in to what people say. You can’t let people think that they won. At times I felt like quitting, coaches would tell me ‘No! You’re going to make everybody else that said you were going to quit feel like they won.

“I had my mind set on playing football for a long time that I was going to do it. I promised everybody that I wouldn’t give up.”

And she didn’t.