Julie Harshbarger
Encyclopedia
Julie Harshbarger is a American football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...

 placekicker
Placekicker
Placekicker, or simply kicker , is the title of the player in American and Canadian football who is responsible for the kicking duties of field goals, extra points...

, who currently plays for the Chicago Knights
Chicago Knights
The Chicago Knights are a Professional Indoor Football team based in Loves Park, Illinois. The Knights were founded in 2010 and will continue play in 2011 as a member of the Continental Indoor Football League, playing their home games at the Victory Sports Complex.The Knights are currently the...

 of the Continental Indoor Football League.

Early life

Julie attended Hononegah Community High School in Rockton, Illinois
Rockton, Illinois
Rockton is a village in Winnebago County, Illinois, United States located on the banks of the Rock River. It is part of the Rockford, Illinois Metropolitan Statistical Area...

 where she succeeded on both the soccer field and the football field.

Rockford College

Julie was able to earn a scholarship to Rockford College
Rockford College
Rockford College is a private American liberal arts college in Rockford, Illinois. It was founded in 1847 as Rockford Female Seminary and changed its name in 1892. The college is known as the alma mater of Nobel Peace Prize winner Jane Addams, who was a member of the class of...

 in Rockford, Illinois
Rockford, Illinois
Rockford is a mid-sized city located on both banks of the Rock River in far northern Illinois. Often referred to as "The Forest City", Rockford is the county seat of Winnebago County, Illinois, USA. As reported in the 2010 U.S. census, the city was home to 152,871 people, the third most populated...

, where she played both soccer and football.

Soccer

She played for the Lady Renents, a NCAA Division III institution, from 2004–2005, where she was twice named All-Northern Illinois-Iowa Conference
Northern Illinois-Iowa Conference
The Northern Illinois-Iowa Conference was an intercollegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA Division III. Member institutions were located in the midwestern United States in the states of Illinois and Iowa...

.

Benedictine University

Julie transferred to Benedictine University
Benedictine University
Benedictine University is a private Catholic university located in Lisle, a suburb of Chicago, Illinois. The institution has retained close relations with the Benedictine Order. Originally named St. Procopius College and located in the Pilsen community of Chicago, the school was founded in 1887 by...

 after two years at Rockford. She was twice again named All-NIIC. As a senior in 2007, Harshbarger was on the second team, where she had five goals and led the Benedictine team with seven assists.

Chicago Cardinals

In 2010, Julie tried her luck with the Chicago Cardinals
Chicago Cardinals (CIFL)
The Chicago Knights are a Professional Indoor Football team based in Loves Park, Illinois. The Knights were founded in 2010 and will continue play in 2011 as a member of the Continental Indoor Football League, playing their home games at the Victory Sports Complex.The Knights are currently the...

. After showing up to multiple tryouts, Julie was cut before the season started for the Cardinals. 3 weeks into the season, the team called her back and asked for her to play due to their kicking woes. This made Julie the 2nd woman ever, to play in the CIFL, the first being Katie Hnida
Katie Hnida
Katharine Anne "Katie" Hnida is an American football player who became the first woman to score in an NCAA Division I-A game, college football's highest level...

 of the Fort Wayne Firehawks
Fort Wayne Firehawks
The Fort Wayne FireHawks are an indoor football team affiliated with the Continental Indoor Football League. Based in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the FireHawks play their home games at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum....

. Hnida went on to make an extra point in the FireHawks opener, thus becoming the first female to ever score a point in the CIFL. Julie would however, become the first ever female to make a field goal in an indoor football
Indoor football
Indoor football is a term used to describe several variations of American football which are played indoors. It is important to note that NFL or College games played in locations such as the Astrodome or the Superdome do not qualify as indoor football as they are using a standard size playing field...

 professional game. She connected with a 24-yard field goal against the FireHawks in a 69-45 loss. For the season she was 1 for 16 on field goal attempts and 4 for 11 on PAT's.

Chicago Knights

In 2011, she joined up with the Chicago Knights
Chicago Knights
The Chicago Knights are a Professional Indoor Football team based in Loves Park, Illinois. The Knights were founded in 2010 and will continue play in 2011 as a member of the Continental Indoor Football League, playing their home games at the Victory Sports Complex.The Knights are currently the...

, who replaced the Cardinals in the CIFL. She saw her production take a much greater incline by making 8 of 14 field goals, 19 of 26 PAT's and lead the team in points scored with 43.
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