Page 38 - South Mississippi Living - November, 2018

PEOPLE goals
fter being crowned Ocean Springs homecoming queen, senior Kaylee Foster took photos in her gown and then asked her
mom to meet her in the dressing room to change. Foster traded
her formal dress and sparkling tiara for her Greyhound football uniform, pads and helmet that she wears weekly as the kicker of the high school team.
“My coach told me to soak up the moment, but I was ready to play,” she said. Upon exiting the dressing room, Ocean Springs was in range for her to kick a field goal, which split the uprights perfectly. Later that night Foster kicked the winning extra point to give the Greyhounds a 13-12 victory in overtime. Of the 13 points, she scored seven.
Since then, Foster has been the focus of national media attention and had some
awesome experiences.
“I really didn’t know it was going to
be that big,” says Foster. “I actually practiced my losing face (for the queen
announcement) because I never thought I’d win.” The morning after the game, she
took the ACT college entrance test, and her mother called her on the way home. “She was almost yelling and I thought I
was in trouble,” Foster said. However, her Kaylee is also a soccer star mom told her that the media was starting to
and will attend college on a contact the family and wanted to interview soccer scholarship. her.
When putting on makeup later that Saturday for the school’s homecoming dance, she was being interviewed for a television segment and her mom was on the phone with CNN. “I was late for my date because of the media attention.”
A week later, she and her family were flown to New York so she could appear on ABC’s new Good Morning America Day show with Michael Strahan and Sara Haines. “I was
a little nervous, and my legs were shaking under the table,” Foster said about the experience of being on national television, adding that the hosts were very gracious and put her at ease. At the end of the segment, Strahan awarded her two tickets to the 2019 Super Bowl. On the trip, she also toured the NFL headquarters and did a live interview on the NFL’s twitter page.
Since the win, she has also been tweeted by Ellen DeGenerous and even did a radio interview with the BBC. The City of Ocean Springs presented her a key to the city and
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Kicking
story by Alexis Williams photos by Donn Hupp and courtesy of Kaylee Foster
Ocean Springs Homecoming Queen Trades Crown for Football Helmet