Fuller's first won't be the last you hear in sexism debate

NEW YORK • A first is always going to be noticed. Several women in sports know this from experience recently.

Sarah Fuller is the first woman to play in a Power Five American football game. Kim Ng is the first female general manager of a Major League Baseball (MLB) team. Alyssa Nakken is the first woman to be a full-time coach on an MLB roster. Blake Bolden is the first black female scout for a National Hockey League (NHL) team.

All of those accomplishments occurred this year and were celebrated.

But even some of the women who achieved them were conflicted over the attention they received.

"I do think it's ridiculous, but, I mean, we're appreciating the fact that allies are now opening these doors for people that have the power to present themselves," said Bolden, who was added to the Los Angeles Kings' scouting department in February.

"There's going to be a point where being a woman and a scout, or a coach or a general manager, won't be like this, 'Oh my gosh, can you believe it'?"

Fuller's biggest headlines did not come when, as a goalkeeper, she led her Vanderbilt women's football team to an upset of top-seeded Arkansas in the South-eastern Conference (SEC) tournament final on Nov 22.

Instead, they came six days later, after she appeared in an American football game for Vanderbilt and on Dec 12 became the first woman to score in a Power Five American football game by kicking two extra points against Tennessee, adding to her pioneering resume.

Fuller went from 1,000 Instagram followers to over 250,000 within days, becoming a national sensation.

"It's like nothing I ever experienced," she said. "I was pretty satisfied with a SEC championship, and I was helping out the football team."

For some women's athletes, though, the fact that Fuller's football achievement was overshadowed by the American football one underscored the idea that competing among and against men may not be, for the women involved, an achievement worthy of more attention than doing so with women.

"It's like anything else as an athlete; you can't let it bother you," said April Goss, who was a kicker in Kent State's football programme from 2012 to 2015. "But it's challenging; in a way, they don't let you even feel how much you can do."

A range of women have got notice when invited to participate against men; goaltender Manon Rheaume may be known more for her two pre-season games with the Tampa Bay Lightning in the 1990s than she is for her own career in women's ice hockey.

Kendall Coyne Schofield, an Olympic gold medallist, broke into the mainstream when she was a last-minute replacement for an NHL player in the fastest skater competition during last year's NHL All-Star weekend.

They were touted as having broken glass ceilings, yet the scrutiny is sometimes withering.

Before scoring in the game against Tennessee, Fuller executed a squib kick to begin the second half of a 41-0 loss to Missouri on Nov 28.

A squib kick is neither majestic nor does it have a high arc; it is usually a short drive that bounces around before a member of the receiving team can field it.

That kick elicited a flood of negative responses on social media.

"If you had a male kicker from like, the men's soccer team, brought in, and the coach asked him to kick it, there wouldn't have been a controversy," said Julie Harshbarger, who has kicked for several professional indoor American football teams.

Fuller said: "There's always the hate comments, or whatever, but I was surprised at how much controversy it drew. I was supposed to kick it right there; I don't know what the issue is. I think I did a great job."

NYTIMES