PEMBROKE — Those who play offensive line are among the toughest individuals on any football field, with a unique strength and grit required in the gridiron’s trenches.

From a distance, the lineman wearing jersey No. 50 on the Purnell Swett football team doesn’t look different from any of the other Rams playing the position, with a relatively-undersized frame but a physical playing style.

It takes a closer look to realize that there is, in fact, something unique about Josey Locklear.

She’s a female, blocking the defense’s biggest players to protect her teammates.

“When I first came in to high school, everybody didn’t think I was going to play, because I was a girl playing with a bunch of grown men, basically,” Locklear said. “People know me from it. When I go places, I’m known. When I’m on the field I hear, ‘oh God, is that a girl?’ It’s stuff like that, after the game, the looks I get. It’s different; it’s a different feeling from anything else.

“It’s exciting though, it’s a really exciting feeling,” Locklear said.

Locklear, a three-sport athlete, has played football for the Rams for three of the four years in high school — missing her junior football season only because, due to the adjusted schedule during the COVID-19 pandemic, it conflicted with softball season — and will play her final high school football game when the Rams travel to Lumberton Friday; she’ll finish her high school athletic career with the upcoming basketball and softball seasons.

After playing on the JV team her freshman and sophomore seasons — even overcoming a broken ankle as a freshman — she has started for the Rams’ varsity team this fall.

“I don’t really view it as being any different, because she works just as hard as anyone else on the team,” Rams coach Stephen Roberson said. “You don’t look at her and say ‘oh, she’s a girl,’ you just look at her and see how hard she works. She works hard in the weight room, works hard at practice. Gender-wise, it’s not something that ever jumped out at me; she doesn’t look for any special privileges. She just wants to be treated like anybody else on the team.”

Her teammates, in fact, don’t treat her any differently; she’s played with this group of Rams seniors since the fifth grade, “fell in love with” the game through middle school and decided to continue playing in high school.

“They’re like my brothers,” Locklear said. “I’ve known them forever, I love them like family. I wouldn’t play if it wasn’t for them. They’ve helped me out a lot; when I need someone to talk to, I honestly go to those boys.”

The North Carolina High School Athletic Association allows female participation in sports like football that do not have a girls team. Female football players, therefore, aren’t unprecedented, even in Robeson County.

Most females that play football, however, have played kicker or a speed-based position; it’s rare for a female to play an in-the-trenches role.

“It’s really fun to be different from everybody else in that kind of factor,” Locklear said. “I’ve never wanted to kick, I always wanted to be physical and be on the line. I’ve always wanted to do something more.”

“As a coach it was my first time having a female that played in the interior line, so it was a concern initially for me, but she holds her own,” Roberson said. “It only took a couple of practices to find out that she’s just as tough as everybody else out there. It never really crossed my mind once I saw her in practice, saw her going just as hard as everybody else, it wasn’t a concern after that.”

She’s good enough at her position that she’s entrusted as the left guard — the blind-side blocker position — to protect the Rams backfield.

“She’s starting at left guard for us, and has been one of our most consistent (players),” Roberson said. “There’s a lot of days guys come in and see her going just as hard; I think it’s hard for them to dip their head and not want to put in the effort as well.”

“I’m not that big, I’m only 5’9, so it’s kind of hard to do it,” Locklear said. “I really had the coaches push me in the weight room, mama has pushed me in the weight room more. I know I have to be more tough just because I’m a female, and if I’m not tough I’m going to get run over because boys are just naturally stronger, so I have to hold my ground.”

Locklear knows that her football participation serves as an example to other young girls who may play at the rec level, and could potentially play for the Rams or elsewhere on Friday nights in the future.

“I feel like a lot of young girls do (look up to me),” Locklear said. “I’ll see them walking, I’ll be in Walmart and they’ll come up to me. I was at my little brother’s flag football game the other day and I saw a little girl’s mama and she was pointing at me, and she said ‘that’s the girl that plays at Purnell,’ and her daughter was like ‘yeah, I know, that’s the reason why I’m playing.’ People tell me that their daughter wants to play, and I feel like that’s a good thing.

“I’m starting something, and girls can do anything they put their mind to and if they really want to do it, they can do it.”