White Knoll athlete said she would ‘outkick all the boys on the team.’ She did
James and Simone Perry’s weekends in the fall are usually spent driving and traveling to their daughter’s soccer tournaments.
That’s the case this weekend, when they will travel to Greensboro and Wilmington in North Carolina for soccer on Saturday and Sunday. But Fridays also are busy for the Perry family as they spend their nights in the stands watching daughter Maleah Perry kick for the White Knoll High School varsity football team.
This week, White Knoll faces South Aiken.
“We are pretty proud, I say. She has gotten a lot of attention, but her numbers speak for themselves,” James Perry told The State. “She never ceases to amaze us. She is capable of a lot of things. She goes out there, puts her head down and goes after it.”
In two games this season, Maleah is 8 of 8 on extra points. She hit a 20-yard field goal in the 31-12 win over Orangeburg-Wilkinson on Sept. 3, the team’s first victory since 2019. She has kicked a 45-yarder in practice.
Maleah, a junior, also played for the JV team last week because the team’s regular kickers were unavailable. During the game, she showed she could hold her own. After making a kick, one of the players from the opposing team gave her a little shove after nearly blocking the kick.
“She managed to get the ball off just as they were coming across. I’m surprised she didn’t get hit,” James Perry said. “She got bumped and they traded a few words. Another guy walked past her and she shoved him right back. I told her she didn’t need to be doing that but just continue to do her job every day.”
Maleah Perry, who also handles kickoff duties, hasn’t had to make a tackle yet but is ready if the opportunity comes. She also has hopes of possibly scoring a touchdown.
Maleah said she always liked the idea of playing football, although she admits she hasn’t watched a lot of games and is still learning the rules. She started playing soccer at age 5 when the family lived in Washington before moving to South Carolina a few years ago.
Her father, a local race car driver in Washington, said he tried to get her to try driving go-karts or running track, but Maleah was intent on playing soccer.
In the spring, Maleah expressed her desire to kick with assistant coach Jon Slatten, a former punter at Palmetto High who played at Coastal Carolina University. Slatten recalls that Maleah told him she could do better than the boys, so he told her to bring her cleats to school the next day for an informal tryout.
She didn’t disappoint and hit 42- and 44-yard field goals with no tee in the ground. Slatten relayed the news to first-year White Knoll coach Nick Pelham.
“I went and told coach Pelham she could do this,” Slatten said. “She straight up told me, ‘I could outkick all the boys on the team’ and it was fun to watch. ... She has been great and embraced it.”
Maleah is the first female kicker at White Knoll since Corrie Watkins did it in the early 2000s. She is one of two female kickers in the Midlands this season. Riley Barnes, an all-state soccer player at Gilbert High, was added to the roster last week after the Indians’ two kickers couldn’t play because COVID protocols. Barnes was 2 of 4 on extra point attempts in the 48-47 win over Hartsville.
Gilbert coach Chad Leaphart said this week that Barnes plans to remain on the team for the rest of the season.
“I knew I could be on the team,” Maleah said. “I was really nervous at first, was scared I was going to miss, but I am getting more comfortable.”
Soccer still is her main sport, but she is enjoying her new one and hasn’t ruled out trying to attempt playing both in college.
Maleah plays travel soccer with SC United and is a standout for the White Knoll girls team. Last year as a sophomore, she led the Timberwolves in goals and points in helping them to the Region 5-5A championship.
A few days during the week, Maleah leaves football practice to go straight to soccer in the evening.
She has embraced her new sport so much that she is with the football team this semester during the day when they lift weights and watch film.
“When we were getting our schedules before the school year, I asked her if she wanted to be with her soccer teammates. She said, ‘No, I want to be in the football class,’ ” White Knoll first-year coach Nick Pelham said. “She is with us in the weight room, meeting rooms. She is a full part of our team.”
The only different regulations for Maleah is that she dresses in the girls locker room and has to sit in the front of the bus on road games.
At practice last week, Slatten worked with her and gave her encouragement after she missed an attempt. But Maleah didn’t miss one after that and nailed a final kick to end practice that day.
“She is getting better every single day and more consistent further back. Our goal is to get her touchbacks up and get her 100 percent from 40 yards in. If we could do that with the offseason coming up, who knows where this could go,” Slatten said. “She is an athlete and passionate about playing this game.”
This story was originally published September 15, 2021 at 3:12 PM.
