Georgia legislation helps dwelling schooled kids obtain their athletic targets

MARTINEZ, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) — It’s been a year since Gov. Brian Kemp enacted the Dexter Mosley Act — which allows homeschooled children to compete in public school sports.

We spoke to a soccer player in Martinez who made the best of the past year and will now be playing college soccer this fall.

“I don’t know what I would do without him,” Elysia “Happy” Teske.

She has been playing soccer since she was 7 years old.

Although she will be the first to admit that she wasn’t all that good to begin with, her sheer love of the sport has earned her the nickname “Happy” which has stuck with her ever since.

But to take her passion to the next level she had to play football all year round – and club teams only gave her six months of training.

“That’s when it got tricky,” she says. “I just didn’t have a choice with homeschooling. They didn’t have a football team. So I just walked the distance.”

Her mother, Amy Teske, said:

“Our whole family loved sports, so everyone has always played sports, and with homeschooling, you have to find those. They’re not at your school, you don’t get out of school at 2:30 and then go to practice.”

While Happy began speaking to college recruiters, she and her family observed Georgia’s progress on a plan to have homeschooled students play for public schools.

“I waited three years and then it almost happened and then it was like, ‘No, just kidding,’ and when I heard that it was, I got my hope and I was like, ‘Oh my god, me can do that,” she said. “And I did, and I had the best season I’ve ever had. That was the most fun.”

Over the past year, recruiters have recognized her passion and now she has committed to continuing to play football at Emmanuel College in north Georgia this autumn.

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