From a tiny football stadium in Jacksonville, Ala., to Broadway, from novelty to network star, it has been some week for Ashley Martin.

Not looking to make history, let alone a statement, Martin has nonetheless been quite the attraction since she sent a football through the goalposts on three occasions last Thursday, becoming the first female to score a point in an NCAA Division I-A college football game.

Her place-kicking prowess landed her in New York on Tuesday morning for an appearance on the Live With Regis & Kelly show, with talk of a spot on Late Night with David Letterman.

	Jacksonville State sophomore Ashley Martin made history when she kicked the first of her three PATs.

That followed an appearance with her coach at Jacksonville State, Jack Crowe, on Good Morning America last Friday, and a smattering of interviews with publications such as Time, Sports Illustrated and People.

"It seems to have come on quite strong," Crowe said. "She's entertaining Letterman and Oprah. She might not be kicking for anybody right now. I told her to grab ahold of it."

Oh yeah, there was the soccer trip over the weekend. Martin, a junior, is a star soccer player for Jacksonville State who happens to kick a football pretty well, too.

She proved that to Regis Philbin on Tuesday morning on Columbus Ave. in New York City. Philbin is a better talk show host than holder, and kicking off the pavement had to be awkward. But Martin handled herself better than her famous hosts. Uh, no, Kelly, the Gamecocks do not play Regis' alma mater, Notre Dame, this season.

Anyway. . .

"I thought she did great," said Crowe, who watched the show from his office. "This has been a positive all the way around for our football team. She is a competitor. She dives on the ground, she went through all the conditioning stuff. She did everything anybody else did. She was accepted by our team. And she very much wanted to be a part of the team. I thought it was all a positive."

Jacksonville State, a one-time Division II national champion, is a Division I-AA school. Crowe, the former coach at Arkansas who also worked as an assistant at Auburn when Bo Jackson was winning the Heisman Trophy, didn't bring Martin on board for the attention -- although he admits he doesn't mind the publicity for a program that plays in a 13,072-seat stadium.

Crowe announced two weeks ago that Martin was going to kick after she went 2-for-2 in a scrimmage to bring her preseason total to 20-of-22. Martin was 3-for-3 on extra points in the Gamecocks' 72-10 victory over Cumberland.

"I tried not to think about a bunch of people being there," she said. "I had done it in practice and that really helped. It made me a little less nervous. I had butterflies and my knees were knocking."

Martin was named the Southland Football League special teams player of the week by the conference, and the JSU sorts information also nominated her for several national player of the week honors.

"I'm very proud of Ashley," Crowe said. "She worked hard enough to receive this award, even though I suspect it is a special consideration because of the novelty. In reality, the award goes to a great competitor and Ashley Martin is a competitor."

Her role was well-defined, "to be able to kick an extra point. . . to give us the assurance that we have depth at that position," Crowe said. "To what extent her role develops past that, I'm really unsure."

Crowe said he has a very capable kicker in Steven Lee, a transfer from Tennessee who has excellent range. But, like any other position, Crowe wants to feel secure about who is behind him. Although Crowe doesn't expect Martin to kick field goals, he feels good about extra points.

No novice when it comes to football, Martin is a native of Georgia and kicked for East Coweta High and was once named player of the week by the Atlanta Touchdown Club.

"I asked her to be on the team," Crowe said. "She didn't come to me and ask if she could do this. I knew she had kicked in high school. The team she kicked for played for the state championship. I felt she was competent an qualified. It was a question if I ever needed depth. I ran across her in the parking lot one day and told her I might come after her."

And he is unsure if Martin will play in Saturday's game against Nichols State, a 7 p.m. home game. The soccer team is on the road earlier in the day, playing a 1 p.m. game at Middle Tennessee State.

If she makes it back in time, it won't be any more of a whirlwind than she's been on. Martin left with the soccer team for a road trip Friday, and didn't return until the wee hours of the morning on Monday. The it was off to New York with school officials.

All because she could kick a football.

"I wasn't looking at it like I'm a girl and I'm going to go out and do this (to prove something)," Martin said.

"It was one of the most awesome nights of my life and one of the best experiences of my life. It's not because I made that kick. It's because I was a part of something that was very special, and that's that football team."

Bob Harig covers college football for the St. Petersburg Times.