Local girl with NFL dreams set to play on Mass. team at U.S. Army Bowl

WESTFIELD, Mass. (WGGB/WSHM) - In a matter of weeks, the 6th grade Massachusetts All-Star football team will head to Texas to compete for the U.S. Army Bowl.

Lining up at quarterback for Massachusetts is a girl named Ariella Robinson who, in her first year of playing tackle football, was the only girl to earn a roster spot.

“I feel amazed and happy that a lot of people are supporting me because I’m a girl,” Ariella told us. “Girls are not really in football.”

Ariella, in her first year of playing football, has stood out amongst the rest. This young woman will soon head down to Frisco, Texas, to play quarterback versus some of the best in her grade in the U.S. Army Bowl.

Hailing from Worcester, Robinson is a product of the backyard gridiron, with 3 older brothers molding her into a football fanatic.

Ariella’s mom, Stephanie Wells, told Western Mass News that time spent in the backyard helped prepare Ari for the next step.

“Her brothers are like a few years older than her, so they’re bigger and stronger,” Wells said. “They made her bigger and better.”

It seems that time in the backyard paid off. Her coaches told us that she is one of the hardest hitters on the team and has one of the best arms in youth football.

“I’ve never seen her miss a pass,” said Dan Mchugh, the head line coach for the Massachusetts All-Star team. “Usually, if she misses a pass, it’s because the person can’t catch the dot that she throws. At safety before I came over here, I just said, ‘Hey, can you coverage the field?’ She’s like, ‘Yep.” So, she clearly knows how to play the game.”

Ariella’s coaches believe that she will be one of the very few, if not the only, girl playing in the 6th grade U.S. Army Bowl.

However, as much as Ari is breaking barriers in football, she said that she only has two things in mind heading down to the tournament:

“Getting touchdowns and winning games.”

Ariella and her family have set up a GoFundMe to help pay for the travel expenses. If you would like to donate to help send Ariella to Texas, you may do so here.

Copyright 2022. Western Mass News (WGGB/WSHM). All rights reserved.