Angelina Fakhoury-Siverts will never forget that day in 2001 at East Leyden High School when she was practicing soccer.
The late George Duffey, an assistant football coach, and then athletic director Randy Conrad strolled over and asked if she ever considered kicking footballs.
East Leyden’s field goal kicker had graduated that spring and there was an opening.
Fakhoury-Siverts, then known as Angie Ghanem, said “I don’t know how to kick a football.” But she gave it a try.
“I don’t know if they had someone hold (the ball) for me or if they placed it on the (tee). It’s been a long time,” she said in a recent phone interview.
“The first time I kicked it, it went straight through the uprights. I think it was 40 yards away,” she said.
“Next thing I know, the football coach and athletic director are calling my dad saying, ‘Hey, we want her to kick.’ I said, ‘I play volleyball.’ They said, ‘not this year you don’t.’”
Just like that, the school in Franklin Park had its first female football player. And she was the first female kicker in the West Suburban Gold Conference
She’s going back to East Leyden 24 years after her gridiron debut for induction to the school district’s Wall of Fame.
On Sept. 25 the Leyden High School District 212 Board of Education is honoring this year’s four Wall of Fame inductees in a ceremony and reception.
Joining Fakhoury-Siverts are Sergio Farfan, West Leyden Class of 2014; Rick Heidner West Leyden Class of 1978; and Glen Pietrandoni, East Leyden Class of 1974.
Looking back, Fakhoury-Siverts recalls several boys tried kicking field goals, “but it was not pretty.”
“They rearranged football practice for me so I could kick and then leave to go to club soccer practice,” she recalled.
Her favorite moment – besides never being tackled – came at Oak Park-River Forest High School when she kicked the game-winning 35-yard field goal to beat the Huskies.
And, like most high school athletes, she has that other moment, the one that still haunts her.
“I really didn’t miss any extra points all season. However, I missed one on Senior Night against Willowbrook in the third quarter. We got a penalty — someone’s chinstrap wasn’t strapped. They moved us five yards back. I re-kicked. But Willowbrook had called a timeout. The third time we lined up, I kicked it wide right.
“I was in tears the entire fourth quarter. I remember the guys saying ‘stop crying.’ … We lost by one point. … .It was a tough fourth quarter.”
That missed point? It has stuck with her “for years and years.”
“When you’re a 16-year-old girl surrounded by all the football boys, oh, man,” Fakhoury-Siverts said.
All the Eagles looked out of her. She never felt unwanted.
“It was an interesting dynamic. The cheerleaders decorated my locker on Fridays before football games. … I have so much respect for kickers. It’s not as easy as everyone thinks it is,” she said.
“You feel like everyone is looking at you. Yes, you have one job, but everything has to line up perfectly. The ball has to be snapped with the right timing. The line has to block. My holder has to hold it just right and I have to get my timing down. The amount of time I spent trying to perfect timing? That’s an art in itself. These guys are rushing fast (at you).
“I don’t know how I went an entire season without being tackled. One game, the ball was snapped over me. I ran off the field so quickly. I knew there was some dude on the other team who wanted to knock the crap out of me,” Fakhoury-Siverts said with a laugh.
She credits her soccer background – she played varsity all four years – for helping her kick footballs so well. She used the side of her foot, as she did in soccer.
And Fakhoury-Siverts is continuing her football legacy. She’s now helping kids learn how to kick as the kicking coach for the Junior Patriots, a local youth football program that feeds into Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire.
Fakhoury-Siverts, 40, lives with her family in Hawthorn Woods.
Currently, she works as vice president of Patient Care Services and chief nursing officer for City of Hope Cancer Center-Chicago. Her office is in Zion.
She has won a variety of awards and formerly was director of Inpatient Nursing and the Emergency Department at Loyola Gottlieb Hospital.
A Franklin Park native, she fondly recalls walking from her house on Elder Lane to the pool, and often stopping on Franklin Avenue to get treats from bakeries after school.
Her parents strongly supported the decision to kick, she said. “My dad, I don’t think he missed one of my sporting events.”
Meanwhile, she is floored to be inducted to the Wall of Fame.
“It’s nice to be a female recognized. I can be remembered as the female kicker on the football team or the three-sport athlete. I was probably more known for soccer.”
She played volleyball, basketball and soccer at East Leyden. Sports paved the way for her.
“Being an athlete, being a captain, you transfer that leadership ability into everything you do. It shaped me in my career. When I got my first job, I knew I wanted to be the nurse in charge, the director and now the chief nursing officer. It helped bring out the leader in me.”
Fakhoury-Siverts did not kick field goals her senior year because “I didn’t want to get injured (before) I played soccer in college (at Loyola),” she said.
“It was just one year,” she said, “but it was quite the year.”
Other inductees in the 2025 Leyden High School District Wall of Fame
Sergio Farfan – West Leyden
Farfan is a full-time artist who started designing and selling apparel online in high school. He has worked with the Chicago Bulls, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and he has been commissioned to create artwork for renowned cellist YoYo Ma. Farfan has exhibited his work across the United States and across the world.
Rick Heidner – West Leyden
Heidner grew up in the King Arthur apartments and worked as a maintenance person from age 11 to 16. there from ages 11. He began working in the auction business with his uncles and started REH Industries putting pay phones and video games in convenience stores, restaurants and laundromats. He started JJ Peppers Food Stores in 1984 and the Gold Rush Gaming and Ricky Rockets Fuel Centers in 2012. Today, he and his family give more than $500,000 annually to charitable causes and he volunteers in the IncubatorEDU program at Leyden.
Glen Piatrandoni – East Leyden
Piatrandoni was senior director for Virology for Walgreens and was responsible for the company’s HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis programs. He has worked with the White House National Office on AIDS, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The induction ceremony will be held at East Leyden High School at 3:15 p.m. Sept. 25.
Steve Metsch is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.