When Julie Michael was tired of sitting at home in between soccer seasons, she stayed busy by spending more time in the gym and joining different sports. She’s Mitchell High School’s first four-sport varsity athlete. 

If you know Julie Michael, then you know she spends most of her time in a gym.

“Whenever I don’t have practice in the evenings, I’m normally in the gym,” the upcoming senior told Bay News 9's Katya Guillaume.

If you don't know who she is, here's a quick soundbite but hear her full story online on @BN9.#studentathletes #footballplayer #lacrosse #soccer @SpecSports360 pic.twitter.com/yHEQn3FIky

— Katya Guillaume (@KatyaonTV) July 5, 2022

As a four-sport varsity athlete, spending time in the gym pays off on game days.

“I just know," she said, "In the back of my mind that it’s preparing me for other sports, it’s preparing me for the career field that I want.”

During the winter, Julie plays soccer, and in the spring, lacrosse. She is also a competitive weightlifter.

“All my life I’ve jumped from one sport to the other," she said. "I started with competitive roller skating and then I went to soccer after my mom was like, 'No, you’re not gonna play soccer.' I tried every other sport before soccer.”

Still, she ended up playing. Aside from soccer and lacrosse, this senior is the kicker on the Mustang football team.

“When I hit 7th grade, I was, like, you know, why not, why not try it?" she said. "My mom and dad were like, 'Maybe she’ll hate it, maybe she won’t. Maybe she’ll do it for this season and then be done.'”

“Here we are almost six years later, seven years later," she continued. "Still playing.”

It all started because she hated her downtime in between winter and spring sports

Julie is Mitchell High’s first female football player, a title that never crossed the mind of an athlete who’d just rather be on the field than on the sidelines.

“I always just thought, like, I just like playing sports and if it happened to be a guy-dominated one, oh well, I’ll take the challenge,” she said.  

She plans on taking that same challenge mentality with her after graduation.

“My end goal is to attend the United States Naval Academy and major in cybersecurity and be a Marine Corps Officer,” she said.

“I would like to show future generations that you don’t have to be confined to one thing," she continued. "High school is all about branching out and trying new things, or continuing what you’ve always wanted to do, and if another girl comes along and is like, 'I want to play football,' then they have a female role model to look up to and be like, 'Oh, she did, so I can do it too.'”

You can watch Julie in action with her football team with the Mustangs take the field in the fall. Preseason starts on Aug. 19.