There are 6 teams competing in the U19 division including London, Kingston and Peel Region For the first time, a tackle football league for girls and women is up and running in Ontario. It launched this spring with six teams in a U19 division and three in the U16.
"As soon as I started it, I loved it," said London WOLFPAAC U19 team captain Jessica Knight, 15, who also plays high school rugby and flag football, the contact-free version of the sport. (WOLFPAAC stands for World of Ladies Football, Amateur Athletic Combine).
"I knew I wanted to be part of a tackle team."
The Ontario Women's Football League launched this spring with two divisions. In the most senior division, U19, there are six teams: London WOLFPAAC, Peel Region Panthers, Kingston Sharks, Cumberland Panthers, Gatineau Valkyries and Guelph Jr. Gryphons.
Girls do it differently
The problem until now has been that if a girl wanted to play tackle football, she'd have to play with the boys. "I know a lot of girls who wanted to play but didn't want to play with guys," said Jessica.
"The boys are either afraid to hit them when they play or they go a little overboard to try and make a point that they really don't belong," said WOLFPAAC president and coach, Scott Knight, who is also Jessica's father.
It's not really a playground sport for girls so they really don't get a lot of opportunity to develop those skills early," Scott Knight said. "This is a chance for them to step aside and do it without the guys looking over their shoulder."
And the girls play the game differently then the guys, said Jessica. "We function totally differently."
That style of play recently paid off for Jessica's girls-only flag football team. "In the summer we did play in a flag league with a bunch of boys, who all underestimated us and then we ended up coming in second."
The girls don't ask why," said Scott Knight. "The girls are like, 'Hey coach, this is what you want me to do? Absolutely, let's go do it. Let's execute.' They don't try to second guess you all the time. They're literally just sponges. They've done such a great job of learning the concepts."
They may learn differently but they're not interested in evolving the position names to better-suit the team. "They're very specific that they didn't want to be called different names than the boys," said Scott.
"So, they don't mind being called lineman or things like that. Things that are typical male names," he said. "They just want to be football players."
It's so much fun as a parent to watch the girls develop each practice and take what they learn out onto the field at game time," said Kelly Elliot, whose daughter Abby McMillan,14, is also on the team.
"When Abby went out to her first practice a few weeks ago, she never even had touched a football before. But she wanted to try something new this summer and what she found was an incredible group of girls and has already been talking about the fall season," Elliot said.
The WOLFPAAC take on the Guelph Jr. Gryphons on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. in London at CityWide field in London.
Source: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/first-ever-minor-tackle-football-league-for-women-debuts-in-ontario-1.6854062