Tomorrow American football history will be made as the first
ever women’s tackle league tournament takes place at Hertfordshire University.
Battling it out for the title of the first ever women’s
national champions are the Hertfordshire Tornadoes, the Southampton Stags and
the Portsmouth Destroyers. Each team will play each other in a 40 minute game
played on a 50yard pitch (half the size for men’s league).
The Hertfordshire Tornadoes are the sister team to the
Hertfordshire Hurricanes who were crowned national champions in March after
their win against Birmingham.
Christine Miles who plays centre and corner for
Hertfordshire said “we are all aware of the high standards that are expected of
us, but I think this has just given us more drive to work harder because none
of us want to tarnish Hertfordshire’s reputation”
As with many of the other women in the league, this is
Miles’ first time playing American football when asked about how she is feeling
about the tournament and what it would mean to win she says “we have all worked
so hard, trained so hard and put so much effort in and it’s all coming down to
this Saturday. Winning would be a fantastic reward and recognition of our hard
work.”
Lauren Hackney from Southampton was amongst some of the original
girls who helped develop the idea of a women’s team. After following the Southampton Stags men’s
team, Lauren and team-mate Laura Hill jumped at the chance to start a team amongst
the new league.
Lauren, who plays as running back said that starting a team
from scratch was “difficult, there were a lot of obstacles but we had great
support from both the Stags players and their coaches. Learning a new sport was
a great challenge and we all thoroughly enjoyed it. We have a few rugby players
so I think it was interesting for them to learn the differences between the two
sports. I relished the opportunity to take part in such an interesting sport.”
On what winning would mean to her and the stags, Lauren said
“Getting this far has been an achievement of its own and I am so proud of each
and every person involved. But winning would mean so much as it would be a
privilege to win the first women’s football competition and that our hard work
has paid off. It would also hopefully ensure the future of our club and help
raise awareness for the future of the sport.”
Jo Stacey from Portsmouth is also new to the sport. After
watching the Super Bowl for many years she gained an interest and when she
found out about the new league, she was keen to get involved. “Learning a new
sport from scratch is tough but it’s a good sport and hopefully we’ve done well
enough to make our coaches proud at the tournament. We’ve had amazing support
from our coaches and the university to help us get to where we are today.”
Stacey continues “If we win, it would be incredible as it
would really show how much work we have put into becoming the team we are, but
I am proud of the team either way. I can’t wait to play Southampton and
Hertfordshire and hopefully next year there will be more teams involved in the
league and it will continue to grow.
The first game kicks off at 12.30 at the De Havilland Campus
with Hertfordshire v Portsmouth. For updates follow @ReeDawes on Twitter and stay tuned on this blog for post-match reports/photos and interviews.
