Karlie Harman doesn’t take a backseat to anyone in football.

A 2012 NFL Punt, Pass & Kick regional champion, Harman was named a 2013 Player of the Year in the Dulles South Youth Sports football league in Fairfax County, Va.

Not bad for a girl, right?

A 14-year-old quarterback from Loudoun, Va., Karlie has been involved with sports as far back as she can remember. Her mother likes to say she was born with sneakers on.

"She’s a self-starter, a self-motivator, and she doesn’t care what other people think,” Karlie’s mother, Karen, said in an article on scholastic.com.

Basketball, soccer, whatever Karlie tried she was good at. She had always been interested in football, so when she heard about an PP&K two years ago, she signed up. After winning her local and sectional competitions, Karlie earned a spot at FedEx Field, home of the Washignton Redskins. She not only beat all the girls in her division but the boys, too - finishing eighth in the nation for her age group.

Her football passion continued last summer when she tried out for the Dulles South Thunder, a youth football team in the Fairfax County Youth Football League, one of the largest youth organizations in the United States and a Heads Up Football organization. The league represents more than 6,000 players from across Northern Virginia and the Washington, D.C., area.

Not only did she make the team, the coach made her quarterback and played her on defense as well. Teams thought they could pick on her, but they learned fast that she belonged.

"The very first play (of the very first game), they were going to test her," Thunder coach Bob Thomas told the Washington Post. They threw right at her. We were in a Cover 2, and she came over the top and intercepted. The very first play, she set the tone. 

“Once Karlie showed that she could take a hit and showed she could lead the team, (her teammates) started respecting her."

The only female player on the Thunder, she became the first girl to win a Player of the Year award in league history and the first girl to lead her team to a county championship game. She's back again this fall under center, balancing a high school freshman's studies with leading her team on the field.

Her mom credits Punt, Pass & Kick for lighting the spark inside her daughter.

"I truly believe if she didn't register with the NFL PP&K, her path would be much different," Karen Harman said. "A big thanks to the PP&K program for jump-starting her goals."