A local girls soccer star was recognized by Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson Wednesday, for her talents shown on the football field. Anna Seebeck became the first girl ever to score a point for the Gladwin Flying G’s football team as a junior in 2021.
As a senior she helped the team win their first ever state title.
“They didn’t care who it was. It had to be somebody with a leg who could kick a football through the uprights,” said Seebeck. “That’s all they really needed.”
It was really that simple, Seebeck was a star soccer player and the football team needed a kicker. So she learned how to kick and she nailed it in the first game.
“I went out there and made that first one. It was probably like the best feeling ever and nothing has topped it since,” said Seebeck, “But winning a state championship was close.”
This wasn’t some small crummy team that just needed bodies, they were a powerhouse building toward their first state title and Seebeck was along for the ride to Ford Field.
“The distance to kick the extra point felt like 1,000,000 miles,” said Seebeck, “I know it’s the same, and it always has been.”
She ultimately wasn’t needed in the title game but over two years she made 116 extra points. More importantly, she showed she could do it. She could break into a male dominated world and prove she belonged.
“Being able to go out there and any kind of doubt or shadow that was over me, that very first game, I was able to just knock it out,” said Seebeck.
That caught the eye of Secretary Benson.
“We all have an opportunity to move forward together, and I really think that’s what her courage and tenacity and her talent has demonstrated,” said Benson.
A lifelong sports fan, Benson was the chair of the state’s Task Force on Women in Sports.
“When I was younger, I wanted to be a Major League Baseball umpire. That was my dream and I thought I couldn’t,” said Benson. “I just assumed I couldn’t do it because I never saw a woman do it and to this day we haven’t really seen that.”
She says that kind of courage and tenacity will serve Seebeck well in every asset of life and inspire those behind her to aim even higher.
“I think it’s really important when girls and women do try to break barriers, whether be in sports or business or tech or politics, that we support each other,” said Benson. “That we honor each other, that we applaud each other.”
Seebeck has seen that back in Gladwin, as little girls look up to her. Just as she looks up to the women ahead of her, like the ones at the top of state government.
“They’ve made that path for me to follow and so seeing that and then knowing that I’ve made a path back at home, it’s very nice to see women in these kinds of situations making paths for each other,” said Seebeck.
Seebeck is heading to Northern Michigan University next year where she is still deciding whether to join the soccer team or not, and study anthropology and history.
