I call the defensive tackle "sweetheart," and the tight end is "our girl." 

I've coached seven years of HS football.  A rare liberal in jockland, I remember several times standing up to entire coaching staffs--particularly at the Catholic school for which I coached--and defending girls' right to play.  We never had girls trying out for our team, but a few schools in our little conference occasionally had girls on some teams.  (None has yet started, but they did see the field in games.)

I've taken time away from the high school game in recent years to spend time with my sons--ages 6 and 8.  My boys frequently wrestle against girls.  Most in the sport of wrestling have become accustomed to seeing girls filling slots at lighter weights all the way up to the HS level.  A girl we'd see during the season took second in state at 103 pounds as a high school senior. 

My eight-year-old is now old enough for Pee Wee football.  Obviously, I got roped into coaching.  And I'm delighted to report that I now get to be one of those coaches who has a girl (two, actually) on the football field.  The beauty of it for me is that the girls who play football with the boys on our squad are completely accepted by their teammates.  They are neither handled like China dolls, nor are they in any way considered less "feminine" than other girls. 

I rarely use names on the field.  Everyone is "sport" or "champ" or "buddy-boy,"  whatever positive expression rolls out of my mouth.  Our eight-year-old female d-tackle is as sunny a soul as I have ever known, and she normally ends up being "sweetheart."  It makes for some odd sentences like, "Wrap him up and put him on his rump, Sweetheart" or "Sweetheart, you gotta drive his hind-end right into the backfield!"  Our eleven-year-old female tight end is a dream of a player.  Takes coaching very well.  "Gets" the game.  Can run like the wind and get open deep.  She gets my top-shelf nickname, "Our Girl" or the ultimate, "Our Girl Here!"  The most impressive HS players I've ever coached were always, "Our Boy."  Now, I say things like "Our Girl Here just planted the outside linebacker!"

Now, knowing the size of famliy members et cetera, it's pretty unlikely that either of these girls will ever get to be much over 110-120 pounds before they graduate high school.  Both will probably leave football behind once they are too old for the summer Pee Wee program and pursue the traditional girls' sports in the fall.  (Regardless of gender, it's darned hard to make it in HS football when the players at your position are 50-200 pounds heavier than you are.) 

But I truly believe that both of these girls (and the girls my sons wrestle) are going to learn that they can compete with the boys in the boys' own arena.  And I think that the boys are learning that, too.  Someone can be traditionally feminine in appearance and manner and still be tough as nails.