In many North American high schools, the only way for girls to participate in the sport of football is by cheering on the sidelines.
Not so in the Northern Saskatchewan Football League (NSFL), where young women are tackling, catching and running alongside their male counterparts.
The league, of which the Creighton Community School Kodiaks team is a part, is co-ed.
While no female students played in the Kodiaks’ first season last year, five girls enrolled to play with the Kodiaks this fall.
By the time the team played their first game on Sept. 3, three female players remained: Ebony Ireland, Aline Nasselquist and Mady Simon.
With one game under their belts, the girls are ready to roll.
“I’ve been into athletics my whole life,” said Nasselquist, a Grade 10 student who plays defensive back. “I wanted to try football to see how it was, and to get as many sports as I could while in high school.”
Although all three girls have competed in various team sports, football is a new sport for them. Like many of their male teammates who joined this year, the girls learned the rules of the game when training began on Aug. 19.
A glance at the nine NSFL team rosters from 2014 shows that girls are a minority on all teams in the league. That scarcity was an incentive for Ireland, a Grade 11 student and wide receiver.
“I was determined to play,” she said. “Because there aren’t many girls playing football, I wanted to be one of those girls.”
Kodiaks head coach Ryan Karakochuk said he has been impressed by the dedication and passion the girls have demonstrated so far. The coaches have aimed to ensure sure all players, male and female, feel like a team.
“Our players know right away it’s a family atmosphere,” he explained. “If you’re not part of the family, you’ll be talking to one of the coaches.
Linebacker/defensive line Simon said her teammates have been great so far. “The guys were totally cool. They were really welcoming,” she said. “They took me in as one of them. It wasn’t weird or anything.”
While the girls say they tend to stick together during practice, they all seem to enjoy the culture of a co-ed team.
“I like how it’s less clique-y, and if you do something wrong, they’re not like, ‘Oh my gosh, why are you playing?’ It’s like ‘Oh, try this,’” Nasselquist said.
When asked about their goals for the year, Nasselquist said she hopes to get some solid playing time in games.
For Simon, developing a deeper understanding of the game is key.
Ireland said she wants the team to do as well as last year. That would be no small feat: the Kodiaks had a flawless first season, winning all the games they played in the regular season and becoming playoff champions.
The three girls seem to be well on their way to meeting their goals: they all had some playing time on the field in the team’s first game against the Sandy Bay T-Wolves, which the Kodiaks won 53-8.
“I was talking to the girls before the game and they seemed really excited and nervous,” said Karakochuk, “but once the game got going, they started to feel more comfortable.”
So now that they have played on both co-ed and single-sex teams, what do the girls think of the co-ed approach? So far, it’s a big thumbs up from all three.
“I like it a lot,” said Ireland. “We have to work together and it shows the guys that we can work just as hard as they can.”
“I like the idea of everyone being unified, and not being pushed into different groups,” said Nasselquist. “It gets girls to work harder to prove that they are worthy.”
While the athletes and their coach affirm that male and female Kodiaks are seen as equals on the field, the girls’ words betray an underlying pressure. All three seem to feel they need to prove that they are not only good athletes, but that they deserve the opportunity to compete with the opposite sex.
“My sister pointed out, ‘You know if you lose one game, they are going to say it’s just because there’s a girl [on the team],’” said Nasselquist.
Simon recalls that her parents were concerned about her playing such a rough sport. “My parents thought a lot of the boys would think, ‘She’s a girl, let’s show her that she doesn’t belong.’”
The girls seem to be holding up the pressure just fine, though they acknowledge they work even harder on the field to show that they are not to be underestimated.
Simon, Nasselquist and Ireland are ready and willing to disprove any doubts about what girls can do.
