Who is Haley Van Voorhis? Complete details about Shenandoah safety who made history in NCAA college football arena

Haley Van Voorhis may have featured for a Division III team in Week 4 of the 2023 college football season, yet she's making headlines. Van Voorhis stamped her footprints on the sands of time on Saturday. She became the first woman to play an NCAA football game in a non-kicking position.

Understandably, Van Voorhis' achievement caught widespread attention, given how football is a male-dominated sport.

Van Voorhis is a junior safety for the Shenandoah Hornets football team. She is from The Plains, Virginia. She attended Christchurch School, where she played high school football. She earned an All-State honorable mention in 2019.

Shenandoah is a Division III school, but that does nothing to diminish Van Voorhis' milestone. She played for the Hornets in Saturday's game against Juniata College. But not just that, she played a quarterback hurry, forcing a fourth down.

Van Voorhis has a height of 5-ft-6 and weighs 145 pounds. She is also a versatile dual athlete and competes for the track and field team in sprints.

Brock McCullough, the Hornets' defensive coordinator during Van Voorhis' freshman season, was impressed by her. In 2021, he said to the Winchester Star,

“She's super humble. She doesn't say much. She's out there to work hard. I think the players really respect the fact that she's one of our hardest workers.”

Is Haley Van Voorhis the first woman to play college football?

Haley Van Voorhis is not the first woman to play college football. However, she is the first to play as a safety. Shelby Osborne was on the Campbellsville University football team in 2014, the first female non-kicker in college football. She did not feature in any game, however.

Liz Heaston was the first female to score a point in college football. She achieved this in 1997 when she scored an extra point for Willamette University. Willamette was then a NAIA school.

The first Power Five team to play a female scorer was Vanderbilt. This was in 2020 when Sarah Fuller scored extra points for the Commodores as a placekicker. Fuller was also a goalkeeper on the Commodores' soccer team.

Women's place in football has remained limited to minor roles for much of the sport's history. But pacesetters like Van Voorhis continually open spaces for women's participation in the game.