Nine-year-old Ally Noe of Wareham traded her cheerleading pom poms for shoulder pads this year, and the little bruiser has been tearing it up for the Wareham Tigers E-Squad.

She has "no fear of getting out there and hitting," said Team Mom Allison McNeely — despite the fact that Ally spent last year on the sidelines as a Tigers cheerleader.

McNeely says that most of the kids have some apprehension when they first hit the field. After all, the E-squad is the youngest/smallest group of kids in the Pop Warner league.

"They realize it's not that bad, that's why they wear 80 pounds of pads," she said.

Coach Tom McNeely agreed that Ally has no problem throwing herself into the scrum.

"She does really well. She gets right in there and pushes them around," he says, adding that Ally is likely to just keep getting better as the season goes on.

"Most first-year players, their confidence increases as they play," he noted.

Ally was a little nervous when she started "because it was all boys, and I thought I was going to get hurt, but I didn't."

How does she feel about it now?

"Proud of myself," she says with a smile.

Ally is a hard-hitting lineman (linelady?), playing both offensive and defensive tackle.

Her mother, Sherry, says Ally much prefers playing on the gridiron to cheering on the sidelines.

"She really didn't care for cheerleading," Sherry says. "Every time I went there, she's on the ground picking grass."

Sherry wasn't at all anxious about her little girl playing against the boys.

"I was actually happy," she says. "I actually wanted to play Wareham High School football. I went to sign up and it cost extra for female pads," she said, noting that at the time, her family simply didn't have the money for it.

Ally is diplomatic when it comes to the football vs. cheerleading question.

"It was kind of fun," she says of cheerleading. "Football's more fun. You get to tackle people."