FOR THE LOVE OF THE GAME

Sam Morris, Las Vegas Sun

Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2006 | 7:30 a.m.

Palo Verde High School football kicker Ashleigh Shoughro watches the ball split the uprights during practice Tuesday afternoon.

"What, doing promo shots for a new football Barbie?" a coach needles as he passes by because she's being photographed.

A grin spreads across the face of the Palo Verde senior, who says, "They treat me just like anyone else on the team. They talk as if I wasn't here."

Good-natured ribbing aside, Ashleigh has been instrumental in the Panthers' success this year, and not just with her 90 percent accuracy on point-after attempts. During the first game of the season, she made two touchdown-saving tackles as the last line of defense on kickoffs. Her gender "doesn't make a difference," coach Darwin Rost says. "She's just a great athlete."

Ashleigh's love of football and skill at soccer - she helped lead Palo Verde to last year's soccer championship - had manifested itself into the desire to be a kicker in middle school. "But my mom didn't want me to play," she said. "I think she was afraid of me getting hurt." When comments she made about being able to do better than the previous kicker reached kicker-less coach Brian Cox's ears, he asked her whether she wanted to kick. Realizing what an opportunity it was, her parents relented and let her join the squad.

While kicking an ovoid ball has probably gotten her more notice than kicking a round one, it's her talent on the soccer pitch that is taking her places. "I've always watched football and it's been kind of a hobby," Ashleigh says. "But I'm finished after this so I can concentrate on soccer."

The student with the 4.0 grade point average will do just that with a full-ride scholarship to play for soccer powerhouse University of San Diego.