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Delran eager to get over the hump this fall
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SePTeMBer 18-24, 2019
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Deptford’s Angelina Schilling, a soon-to-be Division-I soccer player, is spending senior year as an ambidextrous kicker on the football team
No Limits By RYAN LAWRENCE Sports Editor
Before his Week 2 game at Overbook, Deptford Township High School football coach Al Orio was approached by his first-year kicker. No, kicking left-footed wasn’t an option this week. Orio knew about the injury and had prepared some two-point plays in practice. But the senior was perfectly capable of attempting all kicks that night right-footed. “What?!” Orio said in mild disbelief. The team didn’t have any time to practice; the game was about to start. But his kicker, Angelina Schilling, the second female kicker in the history of the Spartans football program, knocked through two of her four attempts that night in a 32-6 victory. A week earlier Schilling, who will play Division-I soccer next fall at Youngstown State University, went 5-for-5 in extra-point attempts and also nailed a 22-yard field goal in Deptford’s season-opening 44-6 win over Cherry Hill East. All with her left foot. “I’ve always said in soccer that my right
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foot is my finesse and my left foot is my powerhouse,” she said. “And the football kick is all about finesse.” Schilling opted to switch feet for football because of a mild hip injury from soccer. But, hold on a second: Why is Schilling, an elite soccer player, playing football this fall? Before the summer the rising senior had to make a decision: take an opportunity to play for her club team, SJB Rush, in Development Academy soccer, or finish her high school career with Deptford’s team. She opted for the more competitive Academy soccer to prep for collegiate career. As for adding football to an already busy schedule that includes soccer six days a week, often traveling outside the area in the process? “It was something I always thought about doing,” said Schilling, who once turned a 52-yard free-kick into a goal as a freshman in soccer. “And I was just looking at it as getting myself better, they have great agility and strength coaches (in football) … and that was something I knew I needed to do to get to the next level. So please SCHILLING see , page S5