Girl makes history as quarterback of Pop Warner team
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HARVEY, Illinois (AP) -- She has a good arm, fast feet and an aversion to Barbie dolls, and now this 11-year-old quarterback is headed for the history books.
Jasmine Plummer will lead the Junior Pee Wee league Harvey Colts into the national Pop Warner tournament in Florida next week. Pop Warner officials say Jasmine is the first girl to play quarterback in the tournament's 56-year history.
"It's not a big deal. I just like to play football because I don't like to play with Barbie dolls," Jasmine said.
Her teammates, who range in age from 9 to 11, don't seem to think it's a big deal either.
"She scrambles good, she throws the ball good, she runs good," said DeMarius Reed, a friend of Jasmine's who plays wide receiver and defense on the team.
"We win the games because she's really good," said Dimitrius "Doc" Hardwick, another teammate.
After playing pickup football on the streets and sidewalks of Harvey, a suburb south of Chicago, Jasmine joined the Pop Warner Mighty Mites division when she was 6. She led her team to an undefeated record last year.
This year, she graduated to Junior Pee Wees and took the Colts to an 11-1 record and a shot at the big prize.
If the Colts make it, it will be the second time a Harvey team has won a national championship in any division since the city league joined Pop Warner in 1967.
Their success will rest with 4-foot-9, 90-pound Jasmine, who is sporting a jagged front tooth from wrestling with her little brother last week.
In addition to her success on the football field, Jasmine maintains a straight-A average at Angelou Elementary School. When asked what she dreams of being when she grows up, football player comes second to mathematician.
"She's just different," said her mother, Guya Johnson. "When they win, you know how people get excited and jump up and down and holler? She doesn't do that. She's modest -- she just smiles and walks away."
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