Meet Aubrey Laue, San Diego’s blue blood high school Homecoming hero

Damaja Jones will lead offseason workouts for the Helix High football team starting in January at 6:30 a.m.

“It’s open to the entire school,” said Jones, who has been head coach of the San Diego-area school since 2022.

Many students show interest. Very few actually show up.

Aubrey Laue was eager to make the varsity roster starting in January 2023 after playing on the JV team the year before. So she showed up every morning. The only woman in the room.

“She did it,” Jones said. “And the rest is history.”

Laue was a third-string kicker as a junior in 2023 and didn’t get many opportunities beyond occasional PATs and kickoffs, only after games got out of hand. This year, however, she’ll be in a starting role after beating out two other kickers in a preseason competition.

“Growing up, one of my best friends’ older brother got kicked out of high school, and we were both football players,” Laue said. “So we made a promise to each other, like, ‘Oh, we’re both going to high school,’ kind of a joke. And then I continued with it.”

Last month — in her greatest moment yet — Laue made a 27-yard field goal with 23 seconds left to lift Helix to a Homecoming victory over Madison.

What a story!! @HelixFootball kicker Aubrey Laue gets the game-winning field goal with 23 seconds left. Her team earns the 23-20 win thanks to “Aubrey” chants on homecoming night. Sports are great! pic.twitter.com/spcey4MJgQ

— Allison Edmonds (@aedmondstv) September 14, 2024

“I was talking to one of the (Helix) coaches the other day,” said Laue, who is believed to be the only female starter in the San Diego section of the CIF this year. “And (he) said, ‘You’re a player. Actually you are a football player. You’re not just a girl who plays football; you’re a football player.’

“So I guess that’s what I’m hoping for. (That) I’m not just going to be the girl who was just on the team just to be on the team. I’m actually on the team. And actually play.”

And this isn’t at a small school struggling to field a team. Helix is ​​the alma mater of former USC star and Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush, former NFL quarterback Alex Smith and former UCLA and Colorado coach Karl Dorrell, to name a few. The Highlanders are behind this year – 2-3 in five games – but they are one of California’s blue-blood programs.

Somewhere in the Laue family archives is a photo of Aubrey as a young girl, wearing a football jersey and holding her hands up, signaling a touchdown.

Laue has loved soccer for as long as she can remember.

But before she tried out for the Helix team, she had to make sure she knew how to kick a soccer ball. Until a few years ago, she only kicked footballs as a goalkeeper.

“It was definitely a little different,” Laue said. “I went out on my own one day to see what it was like, and then I went to a kicking coach. I started giving private lessons and stuff, and then I just started getting used to it and getting better at it.

Laue’s current range is about 40 meters. But on Homecoming night, she was crushed when she missed an extra point earlier in the game.

“She beat herself up more than anything,” Jones said. “It’s interesting because I asked her, ‘Hey, what happened?’ And she didn’t blame the break, she didn’t blame the grip; she didn’t blame anything. She said, “Coach, I just hit it too far to the left.”

Helix believed it had scored the game-winning touchdown on a fourth-and-short play in the final seconds, but it was negated due to a holding call. Jones had to make a decision with the score tied at 20-20.

“We had to get it down to 10,” Jones said. “And I thought, ‘Well, it’s fourth and ten. I know Aubrey’s range.” I said, ‘You know what? We’ll score a field goal. We’re going to give her (a chance). ”

As Laue prepared to take the field, nerves began to set in. She knew that if she hadn’t missed that extra point earlier in the match, Helix would have been ahead 21-20 and wouldn’t have needed a late lead. game heroics.

As she trotted onto the pitch, she heard shouts from the crowd – from the opposition and from the Helix fans, chanting her name in unison.

Laue took a deep breath and blocked out the sound.

“Before I went there, my retainer said, ‘Oh, you got this. This is nothing.’ He kind of got me excited and stuff,” she said. “I’m like, ‘Okay. It’s just like practice. I can do this. There is no difference. ”

Laue knew immediately that her kick was good. She nearly fell over as her teammates mobbed her and jumped up and down all around her to celebrate the biggest moment of her career. As she left the field with her pink mouthguard still in place and her blonde pigtails blowing in the wind, the pep band turned on the fight song and the Helix coaching staff waited on the sidelines, ready to celebrate.

“She’s our player and we love her,” Jones said.

It remains Laue’s only field goal attempt of the season so far.

“I’m so proud of her,” said Evan Arapostathis, a former NFL gambler and Helix alum who now works with specialists on the football team.

“You have no idea.”

Last summer, Laue told Jones she had to miss a few days of offseason practices.

“As a coach,” Jones said, “I was like, ‘Why are you missing?’”

Then Laue talked about her medical condition.

“I have a congenital heart defect,” she said. “So for me, I was basically born with holes in my heart.”

Laue had her first heart surgery at the age of 1. Because of her condition, her oxygenated and deoxygenated blood mixed, she said, meaning her heart wouldn’t have enough oxygen as it pumped blood to the rest of her body.

She wore a heart monitor as a toddler and visited a cardiologist monthly. When she was three, she underwent a second catheter procedure to help repair the holes, but a week later she had to undergo open-heart surgery when her mother noticed she was urinating blood the color of black coffee.

Doctors were able to manually repair Laue’s holes. She now visits her cardiologist every two years for checkups.

Last summer was her last time as a camper at Camp del Corazon, a five-day, free camp on the California coast for children ages 7 to 17 with heart disease. That’s why she needed a few days off from soccer practices.

Laue initially did not tell her coaches about her condition because she did not want to be treated differently.

She now has no restrictions and can play any sport.

“I’m very grateful for that because I know that even after all their treatments, some children are still limited in what they can do,” she said. “It’s been part of my life.”

Laue is applying to colleges and plans to study medicine and eventually become a pediatric cardiologist, helping children like her.

She knows a cardiologist who also has a congenital heart defect and has always admired the way he treats his patients. From 2026, she plans to become a counselor at Camp del Corazon.

But football will always stay with her. Two dozen women played organized soccer in the San Diego Section of the CIF in 2023, and Laue hopes that trend continues.

“Definitely do it. Don’t be afraid to do it,” she said of her message to other young girls curious about playing.

“When I first started and wanted to do it, people were like, ‘Oh, but you’ll be the only girl.’ They hesitated. I thought, ‘No, if I really want to do it, I’m going to do it.’ So that’s what I would say. If there’s something you really want to do in life, go do it. Because it can be great.”

And while she has no plans to play soccer in college, her future school better have a team.

“I looked at a few schools. And then I was like, ‘Oh, you don’t have football?'” she joked about her college application process. “From my list.”

(Photo courtesy of Manorack Sukhaseum)