Young Taber female football player cracks South Knights roster

By Lethbridge Herald on May 2, 2023.

Herald photo by JUSTIN SEWARD TaberÕs Alaxis Pierson sits up after being tackled during a play at an Alberta Summer Games try-out on Saturday at University of Lethbridge Communuty Sports Stadium.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

Grade 8 Taber female football player Alaxis Pierson has not let a male-dominated sport phase her whatsoever.

Pierson was the only female player  at the two-day U16 South Knights team Alberta Summer Games try-out  over the weekend and cracked the team’s  35 -player roster.

There were 101 registerd players at the try-out

“Ever since I was little, I’ve always wanted to progress to something and this is kind of building me up because I want to get a scholarship for university and become a dentist hopefully one day,” said Pierson on the ASG opportunity during a break in the plays.

“So, this is kind of helping me get there and everything.”

“I’m hoping to take a lot of the things I’ve  learned like where I need to be…, my timing, just all that kind of stuff,” she said.

“And hoping I can apply that to my other teams.”

A mix between a couple of good friends and encouragement is all that she has needs on the field being the only female.

“Sometimes people will love you, sometimes they’ll hate you, but really I feel like you only need a good few friends to really be able to go out there and the encouragement too,” she said.

She has been living by a certain quote as she has played the sport in order to succeed.

“There’s one of my quotes and it’s, ‘It doesn’t matter how hard you get knocked down, it’s how hard you get back up,’” said Pierson.

“So I’ve really taken that really from here because here you get hits. You get really big hits, it’s way different than everything else. So you really have to learn how to bounce back from that.”

She really wants to stay humble and always tries to rise above.

“Because I feel like if I were to let myself go and everything, I feel like I wouldn’t have that desire,” she said.

“But I feel like I still have lots more improving to go.”

The Taber Rebels bantam football player has played the sport for seven years.

“So in the beginning I didn’t really want to,” said Pierson.

“I originally had horses and grew up around on the farm and my dad played football and he said you need something to do. So (I) went into football in Grade 3 and I hated it. But then as the years went on, I started to grow a very large love for the game.”

Pierson started competitive football in her third year of playing.

“I really  started to get up there and my name was starting to get out,” she said.

“And last year was my first year going out to camps and playing on some more teams.”

She will go wherever football takes her.

The Alberta Summer Games is from July 20-23 in Okotoks and Black Diamond.

The Knights first game is May 22 as the football  schedule is spread out over a couple of months.