Varina's Tamya Hatchett relishes challenges of football and support from her teammates

It was amid the fervent cheers of the crowd — chanting her name and screaming words of encouragement — that Hatchett debuted as a kicker for her school’s football team.

After standing on the sidelines for the previous four games, she knew exactly what her position entailed. What she didn’t know was when she would be able to kick the football in front of a crowd.

On Oct. 11, a Friday, the Blue Devils dominated their game against previously undefeated Glen Allen. The game that resulted in a 38-3 win for Varina, behind a dominant performance from the Blue Devils defense, was also their new kicker’s debut.

Varina head coach Marcus Lewis recalled a moment during the game when Hatchett tapped him on the shoulder and asked if she could kick.

“We’re going to get in the end zone and you’re about to kick this football,” Lewis responded.

Eight minutes into the fourth quarter, Johnnie Trejay Washington scored a touchdown. At that moment, Hatchett knew it was her turn to kick the ensuing extra point.

Lewis and other Varina coaches had been looking all summer for another kicker to join the team. After hearing from one of her teachers that the Blue Devils needed a kicker, Hatchett contacted Coach Lewis, tried out and, a few weeks later, she was on the field practicing with her new team.

Hatchett described her first encounter with her new teammates as awkward, because some of them didn’t know she would be joining them. A few of them who knew her outside of sports asked what she was doing there and, when she responded that she would be practicing with them, they were surprised.

“As of before Friday, people were still asking me, like, even when I’m in a helmet and shoulder pads, like, ‘Oh, I didn’t know a girl was on the football team,’” Hatchett said.

The initial awkwardness faded quickly and, soon enough, she bonded with her teammates.

One of them, Kenneth Johnson, also a kicker, said he was “surprised that a girl actually wanted to put shoulder pads on, and practice with a whole lot of boys she didn’t know, but now she’s like family.”

Hatchett’s coach described her as a hard worker, always willing to put in the time and effort, even when she doesn’t have to. To him, that says a lot about her character and who she aspires to be.

“For the little bit of time she’s been with us, she does everything that the team does, from sprints to the weight room to whatever we do, she does and I ain’t even asked that of her, but she does it. She doesn’t complain, she doesn’t whine. She just works,” Lewis said.

Hatchett was born in 2007 in Japan, where her mother, an Air Force officer, was stationed for three years. She lived in Idaho, Texas and Maryland before returning to her mother’s birthplace of Richmond.

For as long as she can remember, Hatchett was always active. She did ballet, swimming and gymnastics, but soccer is what she fell in love with. She stuck with the sport all through middle school and high school, starting as a forward, playing defense and midfield during middle school and now playing goalkeeper for the Varina girls soccer team. Last season, Hatchett was a team captain.

The transition to football happened when a Blue Devils boys soccer coach, Jeff Varljen, and Hatchett’s former chemistry teacher, Rick Catalano, told her that the football team was looking for a new kicker. She was surprised, but decided she was up for the challenge.

“We found her in the stands, and we talked to her for like two minutes. She goes, ‘Alright, cool, I’ll do it.’ That was all it took for her to go out there,” Catalano said.

Hatchett shared the news with her parents via text. Both were happy and supportive — although her mother, Tameka Jones, worried a little. She reached out to Coach Lewis with questions.

“Does she get a uniform? Is there anything I need to buy? How is she supposed to get dressed at home games and away games if the locker room is only meant for boys?” Jones asked.

Lewis “explained to me how that was going to work,” which Jones said was reassuring. Lewis also told her that the boys on the team “made her feel welcome and supported,” which made her feel even more at ease with the idea of her daughter joining the football team.

Outside of sports, Hatchett dreams of becoming an architect. Although not set on a specific university yet, the senior is preparing her applications and plans to study while playing soccer. She is a student who excels in her classes, Catalano said. He described her as bubbly, brave and blissful.

“Even when things aren’t necessarily going her way, she’ll smile through it and give you a smile to make you feel better, which is good because we don’t always have the best days, but she’s able to make it so you have a better day just by hearing her and being around her,” Catalano said.

In Varina’s 28-13 win over Hanover on Thursday, Hatchett was the starting kicker.