Dexter’s Kenney garners attention Young woman’s FG thrills town

DEXTER – Sunday is homework day for Jana Kenney, and Sept. 9 was no different. The reaction she got finishing her schoolwork and heading into town that afternoon, however, made last Sunday stand out.

“I’d run into people who would congratulate me on the field goal, being the first girl and everything,” Kenney said. “I was like, well, at least I made it. It was lucky. At least, I think it was lucky.”

It’s been a sort of whirlwind for the Dexter senior since she became possibly the first girl to kick a football field goal in a Maine high school game. Kenney hit the 25-yarder Saturday in the fourth quarter of the Tigers’ 16-6 victory over Mount View of Thorndike.

Since the kick, she has had phone calls from soccer-playing friends at Lee Academy, was asked about the feat at a field hockey game – yes, there’s more to Kenney than football – and received red roses from a family friend in Newport.

Oh, and her story made the Associated Press wire and has been printed in newspapers around the country.

“It’s cool and everything, but I’ve really tried to stay low-key,” Kenney said Wednesday after a 6-3 field hockey win over Piscataquis of Guilford in which she scored two goals. “I’ve tried to stay focused on this week’s [football] game in Rockland and the field hockey games I have this week.”

Kenney hasn’t actually looked to see how many newspapers reprinted her story, but a quick Google search shows clips from the Albuquerque Journal’s online edition, Boston.com, which is affiliated with the Boston Globe, the Times Leader of Wilkes-Barre, Pa., the San Diego Union-Tribune’s online site, and the Ledger of Lakeland, Fla.

Kenney will be back on the football field Saturday when the Tigers face Rockland. Before that game, she’ll play in a key field hockey matchup against Stearns of Millinocket today, followed by a field hockey game Monday against Foxcroft Academy.

On Wednesday, Kenney went to football practice for a while and then headed down to the field hockey field to warm up for the game against the Pirates. With that kind of schedule, Sundays are really her only free day.

Her skills on the football field have garnered her a lot of attention, but Kenney is actually one of the top players on a Dexter field hockey team that is 4-0 after the win over the Pirates.

“The football tends to come up more than the field hockey because obviously it’s a more unique situation,” Kenney said.

She’s also much more knowledgeable about field hockey, which she has been playing since she was a sophomore. Kenney still doesn’t know all the rules that go along with football – she just kicks when called upon, she said.

But Kenney is getting familiar with one rather unpleasant aspect of football.

“I’ve gotten hit a couple times,” she said. “That’s a unique situation. You never know how much it really hurts until it happens. But it’s not bad. I deal with it. It’s part of the game.”