NATCHEZ — Do not tell Shamarra Grover she can’t play football. A playful joke just might transform into reality.

Grover, the Natchez High senior who excels in track and (used to) cheer on sidelines on Friday nights, joked with the Natchez High coaching staff last season about playing football. Most didn’t take her seriously.

Still with the desire of playing football, Grover continued cheering and won events under track coach Larry Wesley’s leadership. Grover placed second in the state in a 300-meter hurdles, and shortly after, she brought up the proposition of playing football once again to her mother.

“My mom was like, ‘You will never be a football player,’ and I begged her to let me play for three months,’” Grover said. “Finally, she said, ‘Do you really want to do this?’ And I said, ‘yes,’ to which she said, ‘Well, if you’re going to do it, you’re going to be excellent. Let’s train, train, train.’”

So Grover put away the pom poms, and she told members of the Natchez coaching staff she would try out for the team in the fall. Coaches laughed it off; after all, Grover was a cheerleader who would one day be Miss. Natchez High.

With a soccer background that extends back to the third grade, Grover was confident she could bring a kicking game to the Natchez High football team, which almost abandoned the kicking game entirely in 2014.

When the offseason workouts began in the summer, Grover showed up at 6 a.m., lifting weights before running on the track with the team. Like most people, senior wide receiver Malik Byrd, who also ran track with Grover, didn’t take Grover seriously, until he saw her on the first day.

“I started seeing her coming to the morning workouts, and I was like, ‘Whoa, she is really serious about this,’” Byrd said.

Meanwhile, an animated Wesley was coping with the loss of his cross country star. Wesley later joked after she joined the football team, “There goes the season.”

“Coach Wesley, he was like, ‘Nuh, uh, you’re not playing football,’” Grover said. “Then when he saw me kick it and make it, he was like, ‘That’s my girl.’”

Wesley wasn’t surprised Grover tried out for the team, though. He always knew Grover was tough.

“A couple of years ago, we were getting on the bus to go to Meridian for a track meet when this girl walks up on crutches,” Wesley said. “She had a release from a doctor and begged me to let her compete. I was scared to, but I let her run in the hurdles. Shamarra won, and I said, ‘This girl is a fighter.’”

As tough as Grover might be, she admitted she felt out of her element last Friday night against Warren Central. Before the game against the 6A foe, Grover ran into some Warren Central players who threatened to hurt her.

When Grover lined up for the extra point try in the second quarter, she was overcome with fear, as a Warren Central player leaped over the line and was heading straight for her. Byrd, the holder, snatched the ball and took off running with it before he was tackled. Byrd said he wasn’t going to let any player from the other team hurt her.

“We welcomed her in nice, just like if she were a male,” Byrd said. “As a team, we take pride in keeping her safe.”

Admittedly, Grover still sneaks over by the cheerleaders to perform cheers and dances during the games. But so far, Grover has made four of her attempted eight extra points, and Grover is steadily running routes in hopes of seeing the field as a receiver down the road.

The joy of making an extra point and the pride she takes in proving people wrong who doubted her pales in comparison to the feeling of being a part of something bigger. The way Natchez football players embraced her has given Grover more strength as a person and faith that she can conquer anything she sets her mind to.

“They think I can do anything,” Grover said. “They encourage me to do everything, and I love my football team. I thought they were so boyish at first, but they really are like a family.”