People

By Guy D. Garcia

As the football team at North Hunterdon High School in Annandale, N.J., started practice last week, one player trotted out on the field with a little extra padding. But despite some initial grumbling, there were no flags, because No. 18 was Elizabeth Balsley, 16, the first female to play on the school's team in the state's history. On her first day, the lissome (5 ft. 5 in., 127 lbs.) but stone-handed rookie dropped some 20 straight passes and described her own performance as "very, very poor." She had fared much better at tackling the local school board policy barring women from playing in men's contact sports. A court order allowing her to join the team first made the wide receiver feel "like I was under a lot of pressure from people who said I wouldn't survive the first day of practice." But Balsley, who was loudly cheered by her male teammates for surviving a "thud drill" that momentarily knocked the wind out of her, now vows with feminine fervor: "I'm going to stick with it. Unless I get hurt."