Summit's Devon Curtright works on kicking field goals with teammate Jonathan Zuniga during practice at Summit High School on Tuesday.

Devon Curtright garners special treatment. During practices, she will not be found participating in offensive or defensive drills. Instead, she will either be looking on or off doing her own drills, sometimes by herself.

This is not because Curtright is the only Summit football player with two X chromosomes, but because she plays a special role for the Storm.

Midway through the second quarter in Summit’s Intermountain Conference matchup against visiting Bend High last Friday night, Curtright — listed on the Storm’s roster as 5 feet 10 inches tall and 140 pounds — booted a 29-yard field goal to give her team a 10-0 advantage. That kick by Curtright, who also was successful on a pair of point-after-touchdown tries, would prove to be the difference in Summit’s 17-14 victory.

The win, though clouded by a controversial finish in which Bend High apparently was denied a last-second chance to score on a fourth-and-goal play from the Summit 1-yard line, gave the Storm (2-0 IMC, 4-2 overall) their first win against the Lava Bears since 2004.

It also earned Summit a shot at its first conference title in school history when it visits Mountain View this Friday.

Not that Curtright ever truly felt uncomfortable or out of place, but it was after the Bend game that she felt like she belonged.

“My teammates, they weren’t acting different, but I just feel like it was different because I actually helped for once,” Curtright says. “I didn’t just kick the extra points and (Summit) won by some miraculous score. During the season, when I started playing varsity, they all were really accepting. … I never felt like they were rude or didn’t want me there, even though they probably didn’t at first. They were all super nice.”

Since she was 3 years old and through her sophomore year at West Anchorage High School in Alaska, Curtright was a soccer player. Her school offered tackle football for the boys (although girls sometimes would kick for the boys team, Curtright points out) and flag football for the girls. But she stuck with soccer, as well as volleyball.

In August 2012, however, Curtright and her family relocated to Bend, and the then-junior faced a decision: continue with a soccer career for which her passion had peaked, she says, or move on.

“I played soccer forever, my whole life,” Curtright says, noting that she chose not to participate in athletics during her junior year at Summit. “I didn’t want to play that my senior year, so I decided that if I didn’t play soccer, I’d try to play football as a kicker because it’s a similar type of job I was doing.”

Curtright recalls being in the grandstands for several Summit football games in 2012. She kept her eyes on the kicker, who would roam the sidelines and occasionally jaunt onto the field to perform his duties. Curtright had a thought: “I could totally do that.”

She began exploring the possibility of kicking for the football team, studying videos of kickers and reading articles about the similarities between soccer and football that her grandfather had sent her. In the dead of winter, she went to the football field at nearby Cascade Middle School and worked on her kicking mechanics. It was then that she decided: She was totally going to do this.

“Once we got into fall ball, and there were more coaches around, that’s when you really saw her ability take off and get a little bit more direction,” Summit head coach Joe Padilla says. “She really started to improve a lot more the more coaching she got.”

Curtright began the season with the junior varsity squad. She approached Padilla after the second game and basically told the coach that she wanted a varsity spot.

It was not the right time, Padilla recalls telling her. “That’s the way football goes. You wait your turn.”

Curtright’s turn came in the next game, at home against Klamath Union, when the Storm’s regular varsity kicker, Calvin Aylward, was sidelined with an injury.

Early on in the season, things were a little tough for Curtright, according to Summit senior wideout Tyler Mullen. Players gave her a little grief. But after that Klamath Union game, things changed. Players noticed the kicker’s abilities and her consistency. All of a sudden, she was not just a girl on the team. She was more than that.

“Now she’s kind of just like a sister,” Mullen says. “We mess with her all the time, but she messes back. We have a good relationship. She’s just another one of our teammates.”

Since becoming the everyday varsity kicker, in four games, Curtright has converted 14 of 16 extra-point attempts and one of two field goals, including the big kick last week that made Curtright finally feel like she belonged.

“We have seen her enough and have seen her with extra points, at least, to have a lot of confidence,” says Padilla, adding that he is confident in Curtright’s field-goal range from up to 30 yards. “It was just like any other kicker going out there, and you expect her to make it. She’s shown that she can do it in practice, and she went out there and did it.”

“I just see her as another teammate,” Mullen adds. “She’s my friend outside of football, too, so I hang out with her outside of school every once in a while. I just see her as another friend and as another player with us.”

Curtright concedes that, here in Central Oregon, when she trots onto the field to line up a kick, onlookers can be taken aback by the sight of a girl in full football pads, hair flowing from underneath her helmet and down her back, playing in a boys’ game.

But Curtright insists that playing football is not “some crazy thing a girl decided to do.”

She gets special treatment — but not because she is a girl (although Curtright does either arrive at practices already dressed down or dresses in a restroom away from her teammates). She is treated special because she is the kicker. And Padilla has confidence in his kicker.

“I don’t see her as a girl going out there to kick a field goal,” the coach says. “I just see her as a kicker going out to kick.”

Prep football this weekend, at a glance

Here is a quick look at the games involving area teams tonight, Friday and Saturday, with records in parentheses:

Madras (0-2 TVC, 2-4 overall) at La Salle (0-2 TVC, 1-5 overall), tonight, 7 o’clock: The White Buffaloes were limited to just 159 yards of total offense in a 49-0 Tri-Valley Conference loss to Molalla in Culver on Saturday. But Madras looks to rebound against the Falcons of Milwaukie, who have mustered just 12 points per game through six contests — fourth fewest in all of Class 4A. Behind Jered Pichette’s 105 yards rushing per game, Madras aims to snap its three-game skid in a conference matchup against La Salle, which has dropped four straight, including last week’s 27-26 decision at North Marion.

Elmira (1-1 Sky-Em, 3-3 overall) at Sisters (0-2 Sky-Em, 0-6 overall), tonight, 7 o’clock: In their 48-13 Sky-Em League loss at Junction City the Outlaws racked up a total of 280 yards, but several drives stalled in the Tigers’ red zone. Logan Schutte, who rushed for 100 yards in that game, leads Sisters in its conference home opener against the Falcons. Elmira, fresh off a 28-6 home victory against league foe Sweet Home last Friday, has won three of its past four games following a 0-2 start.

Sweet Home (1-1 Sky-Em, 2-5 overall) at La Pine (0-2 Sky-Em, 0-5 overall), tonight, 7 o’clock: Brad Ward connected with Dean Lewandowski for a 45-yard touchdown last week, but the Hawks gave up a season-high 76 points in falling 76-6 in a Sky-Em League contest at Cottage Grove. Tonight, La Pine plays a home Sky-Em game against the Huskies, whose 28-6 loss to Elmira last week was their fourth setback in five games.e_SClBRedmond (0-1 IMC, 1-5 overall) at Bend (0-1 IMC, 0-6 overall), Friday, 7 p.m.: The run-oriented offense of the Panthers was shut down last week in a 35-7 nonconference loss to visiting Crook County, but Derek Brown still ran for 89 yards and a score on 18 carries. Redmond travels to Punk Hunnell Stadium on Friday to take on the Lava Bears, who may have been just seconds away from picking up their first win of the season at Summit last week in a game that finished in controversy and much heartbreak for the Bears. Running back Chris Wallace leads Bend into the IMC battle with 103 yards rushing per game and two touchdowns over the last three contests.

Summit (2-0 IMC, 4-2 overall) at Mountain View (0-0 IMC, 4-2 overall), Friday, 7 p.m.: The Storm come off last week’s 17-14 Intermountain Conference home win against Bend High, a game in which they were limited to just 149 yards of total offense. Still, Summit looks to seal its first IMC football title in school history with the 115 yards passing per game of Bransen Reynolds as well as 157 all-purpose yards per contest and a total of 15 touchdowns by Tyler Mullen. Keenan Springer heads the Cougar offense, averaging more than 95 rushing yards per game. He also has scored 11 touchdowns. But stepping up for Mountain View, which will be playing its IMC opener, has been QB Blake Knirk, who has filled in for the injured Connor Nehl. Knirk improved from a 2-for-10 performance two weeks ago to 13-of-24 passing for 163 yards and a total of three touchdowns — two passing, one rushing — in Mountain View’s 50-27 home win over Pendleton last Friday.e_SClBRidgeview (0-0 SD1, 5-1 overall) at Crook County (0-0 SD1, 3-3 overall), Friday, 7 p.m.: Two of Central Oregon’s hottest teams face off in a Class 4A Special District 1 showdown on Friday. The Ravens carry a four-game winning streak into the contest, including last week’s 28-14 victory at The Dalles Wahtonka. Ridgeview’s offense averages 373 yards rushing per game, led by Tanner Stevens and Boomer Fleming. Fleming rushed for more than 200 yards for a third straight game last Friday. The Cowboys defeated Redmond High last week for the first time in 13 years, with Mike Irwin playing no small part. The freshman QB completed 11 of 13 passes for 154 yards and two touchdowns in that game, leading Crook County to its third consecutive lopsided win.

Santiam (0-3 TRC, 3-3 overall) at Culver (0-2 TRC, 1-3 overall), Friday, 7 p.m.: The Bulldogs were limited to just 132 yards of total offense in their 42-6 Tri-River Conference loss to visiting Regis last week. But Culver looks to rebound in a TRC matchup on Friday and earn its second win in three games against the Wolverines from Mill City. Tom McDonald and Levi Vincent — who combined to rush for 79 yards against Regis — take on Santiam, which snapped a two-game skid with a 27-18 win at Waldport last week.

Gilchrist (2-3 SD2) at Triad (3-1 SD2, 4-2 overall), Saturday, 1 p.m.: The Grizzlies’ third straight loss of the season came to reigning Class 1A state champion Camas Valley last week, a 76-20 decision at home. Gilchrist returns to the road and visits Klamath Falls on Friday to face Special District 2 foe Triad, the fifth-ranked team in 1A, which won its fourth in a row last week in a 60-20 victory at Prospect.