High school football is often seen as an all-boys club, and girls rarely play physical poses. In Michigan, Elle Finch breaks norms.
Soccer is usually seen as a men’s game, so for the narrow-minded, it can be threatening when a young woman plays it better than anyone else. On the rare occasions that women are in the field with men at the high school or university level, they are usually on the low side. Some people still use the fear of player injury to indicate that football is not a woman’s place.
However, there is another young star on the rise. Royal Oak High School in southeastern Michigan can claim Eli Finch (class of 2023), who has broken records in all college sports, but mostly on the Ravens football team where she will serve as captain in her upcoming season.
Playing both sides of the ball, Finch is probably the best gun in Oakland County high school football. As a left-footed goalkeeper and midfielder, she brings a lot of physical fitness to the court. She was named Royal Oak’s 2021 Most Dedicated Player of the Year, a college captain, and was heralded as one of the team’s most influential captains.
“She leads our football team on a daily basis, through the way she acts on and off the football field [with] The way she practices and challenges her teammates. She’s also a vocal leader by encouraging and challenging her teammates when she feels they need a challenge,” head coach Dustin Troitt told FanSided, applauding well-deserved praise. “She consistently demonstrates the characteristics we look for in a student athlete.”
Not only does Finch excel on the court or in the gym, either. Sure, she’s a start on the girls’ basketball team, holds the Royal Oak discus record, an All-State nod when shooting, and multiple all-district theater and field awards, but she’s also a 4.0 freshman who’ll finish high. A school with 24 AP credits—or a semester and a half of college work already done.
So what do you want to do when you snap her number 55 Ravens T-shirt off? Her coach thinks she can do anything she wants.
As for me? She wants to eventually become an offensive line coach for a college or NFL, and possibly play in college if given the opportunity.
The journey to the league captain is tough enough, but Finch faced ordeals that no one else on the team could bear. She has faced rampant sexism and suspicion since her football days in local entertainment leagues.
“Probably my biggest opponent was the coach I had in the seventh and eighth grades. Keep in mind that I had been playing football for three years before that and for two years I started in a team called the Royal Oak Chiefs. First year [on this new team] It was all new coaches. He told me that I wouldn’t be able to play high school football and that I would be “too young”, that I would be too weak, that I would get hurt and never play again. He broke my heart because my heart belongs to football and I couldn’t imagine losing him.”
Did Finch let her middle school coach drop her? of course not.
“I am grateful to him. One, because without him he constantly tells me I can’t do it, I don’t think I’d be as tough as I am now for doing what I’ve done. Also, now when someone tells me I can’t do something, I remember those years and I remember who I am now and what I have accomplished and what I am capable of doing.”
Image source: Royal Oak Public Schools and Auckland Activities Association
The boys on her high school team took an informed approach when it came to playing with a girl. Basically, the best player might win. And Eli Finch certainly does. “They treat her like a captain, and when she speaks, they listen to her,” Coach Troitt says, and Ellie knows any of her teammates will bring her back if she ever needs them.
Finch has cemented her place in the Royal Oak family of football, but she wants to make sure she’s not the last girl to play. Summers are spent volunteering at youth basketball and soccer camps, as well as working part-time at a local pizza parlor. When the school year begins, she is sure to break records and play at a high level, all while vying for the top spot in her class academically.
When women enter a space dominated by men, the powers that be and those in established positions often feel intimidated, frightened, or threatened. Elly Finch is here to let other girls know that they can pay for what they’re worth without worrying about male comfort.
Finch goes above and beyond in getting what you deserve. She’s probably the best two-sided player in school history, an all-state field player, and a varsity basketball player. She is one of the best students in her school and focuses on science and technology, which is often male-dominated.
Furthermore, she has chosen to take online sports management classes, in the hopes of starting to achieve her career goals. She wants to be an NFL coach one day, but with a difference Dozens of coaches in the leagueYou will need to gain advantage. The hard truth is that just being the best isn’t enough for her to break the glass ceiling – she needs to show that she’s the best, most capable, most deserving and hardest worker in the business.
She did it all before she could buy a beer, so what would make her slow down? Coach Troit believes in her, and with over 700 shots taken to either side of the ball, she will have plenty of time to prove herself at the highest level.
Finch and the Ravens compete in the Oakland Activities Association. It’s worth noting that nine of the last 12 Michigan State Championship football games have had an OAA, but the Ravens have had limited success. Since the school’s inception 17 years ago, the university team has come together for a record 41-104. They’ve only had four winning seasons, most recently in 2018, and in four seasons, the Ravens have gone winless. Last year was Finch’s first season in college and the Royal Oak went 2-7.
With an all-OAA nod in her junior year, it’s safe to say she has to be one of the most dominant left-backs and linebackers in the county this season, and solidifying a defense that desperately needs some help. Coach Troitt enters its first season At the helm of the Ravens football team I hope he will be the man to change them.
When Finch begins navigating the college’s recruitment system, she’ll likely be inundated with offers from small local schools like Albion, Alma, Hope, Kalamazoo, and Northern Michigan. Based on her academics, she can reasonably attend any school she wants. Playing offensive line in college and excel as a student-athlete in the NCAA is a very different game than Friday Night Lights, but Finch shows no doubt. If she wanted it, she would go out and get it. The league and the professional leagues should keep Finch on their radar, because she’s on her way, even if they’re not ready for it yet.
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