Childhood Dream

Playing professional football is a childhood dream of mine.  At five I remember looking at my grandfather and saying to him, “I want to be big like you so I can play football.”  I’d play tackle football in the yard with the neighborhood kids, but I really longed to put the pads on and hit someone.  I went to a private high school in California that didn’t have a football team, otherwise I would have played with the guys.   So I filled my high school sports dream by playing volleyball, basketball and softball.

Time of My Life

I received a softball scholarship and was a five sport athlete at Columbia Union College in Takoma Park, MD.  After college I started playing flag football, but that didn’t satisfy my desire to hit someone.  I wanted to play on a women’s TACKLE football team and I would go anywhere to play.  Word came that a new league was forming and establishing a team in this area.  Baltimore was the first team announced locally, so I tried out with the Baltimore Burn.  Fortunately, when D.C. announced tryouts over a month later, I decided that D.C. was the team I wanted to play for.  I made the team and debuted in the 2001 season.  Now, going into my sixth season as a linebacker, I am having the time of my life and wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Women's Football in America

 The National Women's Football Association plays by NFL rules.  This is tackle football - the only difference is that the ball is smaller,.  There are currently 33 teams in the NWFA with 2 teams in California who play an expansion season as they develop the West Coast Division.  There are two other women’s tackle football leagues in the United States that have over 20 teams each.  Women’s tackle football is here to stay!  We play an eight game regular season and a four round playoff and championship.  We practice in the evening after work, three days a week with a two and a half hour work-out.  Then there’s game day.  For road trips we travel by bus and stay in a nice hotel.  We play our home games on Saturday nights at the Prince George’s Sports and Learning Complex, which is located adjacent to FedEx field in Landover, Maryland.  Our first home game is April 22nd when we play the Baltimore Burn.

Show Me the Money

We are going into our sixth season.  Our organization has grown tremendously.  The early years were tough, but we learned a lot and stayed together as a team and today we are one of the premier teams in women’s tackle football.  We are the real thing.  We have a dedicated coaching staff and excellent trainers.  Open tryouts are held in October and November for the following spring.  Off-season workouts start in November and the pre-season begins in January.  We split time between the class room and the field while we install our offense and defense.  We study and prepare for the kick off in April, and keep our focus on the goal of winning the world championship in August.  If someone is interested in joining the team, she can go to our team site and email the general manager.  There is always room on the practice squad for new talent.

Committment to Excellence

This is a fulltime career in addition to our professional day jobs.  We are like the NFL in its early days – playing because we love the game.   We make a percentage of ticket sales and sponsorship, but have no fixed salary.  When fans experience the excitement of hard hitting D.C. Divas football, they want more.  Our sponsors are very important to us.  As they continue to grow our opportunity will expand and women’s football will explode.  We are hot!  And this is the greatest sport in the world.

Battle of the Sexes

The largest crowd we ever played in front of was 8,200 at “The Turkey Bowl” in 2004.  The D.C. Divas were challenged by the Sports Junkies, a local radio station sportscast, to a battle of the sexes, all out, no holds barred, tackle football game.  With courage, we faced our fears and accepted the challenge to play a game against grown men. We had been on the radio all month leading up to game day trash talking one another.  The game was intense and closely fought till an interception in the 4^th quarter put them ahead for good. The men outweighed us by 50-100 lbs at most positions and put it all on the line when they hit us.  Fortunately, we came out with no major injuries. We played hard and worked through the size disadvantage to gain the respect of a group of men that didn’t think women could play football.  Respect was our ultimate victory.