She’s Always in There Kicking : Mia Labovitz Is Done With Football, but Soccer Calls

SAN DIEGO — Three patches adorn this high school letter-winner’s jacket--a football, a soccer ball and track wings.

All three symbolize 2 years of excellence on a varsity team. The track wings and soccer ball will be worth 3 years by the end of the school year.

In all three sports, the owner has earned various awards and all-league selections.

This student-athlete has gained the most notoriety in football, claims soccer as a favorite sport and lifelong love, has been most successful in the 400-meter dash and will carry a 3.5 grade-point average into a university next fall.

Big Man On Campus, right?

Not exactly. The jacket belongs to Mia Labovitz, the most prolific female football player in San Diego County history, perhaps in the United States.

Pounding footballs through uprights as the kicker for San Diego High, Labovitz has made an indelible impression on high school football. For 3 seasons (one of junior varsity), Labovitz has been making skeptics believers and cynics appreciative.

But she really didn’t mean to. She says she wasn’t motivated by anti-sexist beliefs, breaking down barriers or making a name for herself.

She just wanted to compete. She just wanted to have fun. Competition and fun, which mean the same in her vocabulary, were what sports were all about to Labovitz.

Like Bo Jackson, football was just something to do between seasons.

She didn’t even try out for the team. Necessity came calling.

In 1986, Steve Hembera, then coaching both varsity and junior varsity football at San Diego, noticed her kicking field goals with her brother, Aaron, who was on the Caver varsity.

Soon after, in the first week of the junior varsity season, San Diego was tied with Serra, 6-6, and faced a fourth down at the Serra 9. The game ended in a tie because the Cavers didn’t have anyone who could produce a 26-yard field goal.

“I thought to himself, we’ve got to get a kicker,” said Hembera, who coached both the varsity and JV. “Mia quickly came to mind.”

Labovitz kicked for the junior varsity as a sophomore, then made history scoring 16 points in each of two years with the varsity.

“She was very consistent and very hard working,” said Scotty Harris, the San Diego coach this past season. “She was capable of making a field goal under pressure from 40 yards in. I think any coach would take that in a high school kicker.”

Labovitz, who kicks left-footed, was good enough to be honorable mention All-City Central League this season. She wasn’t a threat to Helix’s Scott Webb or Morse’s German Puentes--two of the top kickers in San Diego Section history--but she did manage to score all the points in a game this season, something these record-setters cannot claim.

She couldn’t have picked a more ironic opponent--St. Augustine, a private all-boys’ high school. In the first quarter, Labovitz kicked her longest field goal, a 40-yarder. The final score was 3-0.

About a week later, she received a letter from Ben Smith, St. Augustine vice principal. The administrator congratulated her on the achievement and wrote, “I will pay for your first son’s tuition for his freshman year of high school if he attends St. Augustine High School.”

After a kick like that, even Johnny Carson couldn’t resist. Labovitz has talked with representatives of The Tonight Show, and an appearance is possible (Johnny’s on vacation at the moment).

“She’s a real pleasure to work with,” Harris said. “She’s full of vitality. She likes school and likes sports. She’s very coachable. As far as her being out there and me worried about her getting hurt, it didn’t cause any problems because she’s such a super athlete.

“She decided she wanted to play football so I treated her just like any other player, except for the dressing facilities, of course.”

Harris added, “I wish I had her back next year.”

But Labovitz is retired, from football anyway. And now, after 3 months with the boys, she is getting her kicks playing soccer on the girls’ team.

Last year, she scored 17 goals and was first team All-City Central. She was second team all-league as a sophomore after leading the Cavers in scoring with 24 goals.

But this year, Coach Buz Clevenger has been using her as a stopper on defense. The team, he says, is much improved over previous years, so he has had the luxury to move her around. She has scored four goals, and the team is 4-2-2. Clevenger also says couldn’t ask for a better person to take goal kicks.

“I’m really aggressive in soccer,” Labovitz said. “I’m willing to give up my body, and I have the bruises to prove it. But you kick differently in soccer than you do in football, so I’ve had to make some adjustments.”

Like using both feet. Said Clevenger, “She’s never done anything with her right foot except stand on it.”

And, he said, “She’s still kicking like she does in football--30 feet in the air.”

Having played in both, Labovitz makes some interesting comparisons between boys’ and girls’ athletics.

“I think that girls are more spirited. We all know we’re out there to have fun. The guys are out there to kill each other. It’s the same way in track. The girls congratulate each other more often, and the guys are always giving dirty looks at each other.

“But the guys on the football team were great. They would always stick up for me if somebody said something.”

One other thing.

“In football, they congratulate me by patting me on the helmet. And they congratulate each other by patting each other on the behind.”