DALLAS -- When Dani Welniak goes over the middle and makes a big catch it doesn't look so different from any other wide receiver.

The first thing that looks different, though, is her blonde ponytail dangling from under her helmet. That's because Dani is Danilynn of the Dallas Diamonds women's pro football team.

"Getting to hit people, legalized assault is just so much fun," she said.

But unlike other football players she's also a prom queen. Her teammates and coaches didn't, initially, know what to think.

"You get a prom queen coming to play football you don't know what you're going to get," said Diamonds coach Todd Hughes. "But she's proven herself that's the main thing."

"I came out here and I showed everybody that I'm pretty good," Welniak said.

Football is part of her. Her dad played at Nebraska, her brothers played football too. When she was in middle school, Welniak petitioned, unsuccessfully, to get a girls football team.

She played other sports and became prom queen at Central High in Keller last year, the same year she began playing for the Diamonds.

"Being prom queen and being a football player, people think that it's so different, but it's really not," she says. "It's all just an internal state and just what you love and what you're passionate about."

When she got the call to play for the Diamonds, Welniak delayed an academic scholarship to the University of Hawaii.

"I'm only athletic once, so I figured I'll get out here and do the best I can. Have some fun while I'm at it," she said.

Her biggest fan is her mom, who supports her playing on one condition.

"As long as she continues her education and can do both, that works," Stacey Welniak said.

Welniak is taking classes at Tarrant County College and plans to major in marine biology and zoology when she eventually transfers to Hawaii after one more year of football.

She said leaving will be hard, partly because of the success of her team. The Diamonds won their first round playoff game 69-3 over the California Quake Saturday after an 8-0 regular season. They'll play in the Western Conference Championship July 12 in Seattle.

Welniak is a key contributor on offense, but as former prom queen she will also be featured in an upcoming Cosmo magazine article.

"She's not the typical football player," Stacey Welniak said.

Her mom remembers when they went the NFL Pro Bowl in Hawaii and football players asked about Dani.

"She got a lot of questions about 'oh are you a Cowboys cheerleader' and she's like no 'I play professional women's football,'" he mother says. "That was really surprising for a lot of guys."

So she wants to prove being a prom queen and a football player can be one in the same.

"I'm still the girly girl of the team," she said. "Football player, prom queen -- it's half and half."