Behind the helmet

Leilani Armenta doesn’t need a hype song to get ready for Jackson State football games. She never has, even when she first became a kicker as a freshman in high school.

Her motivation lies in her dedication to her parents, who would go to every soccer and football game she played in high school and drive her two hours to club soccer practice twice a week. 

“I've worked so hard my whole life to get to where I'm at because, you know, they've helped me through that,” Armenta said. “So that was kind of like, ‘Oh, okay, I'm gonna go out there. I'm gonna play the game,’ because I've had that support my whole life. I don't, I didn't really need anything to get me kind of going for that. I just knew I was out there to do a job.”

 Now, the 19-year-old Armenta is the first woman to score in an FCS HBCU Division I football game. Closing her second season on the team, she has scored five points (all extra points) with a 100% accuracy rate.  

But what is it like to play on a traditionally all-men’s team? We go behind the helmet to see from Armenta’s perspective. 

Read more here or scroll to see the photos