Warbirds flying high in their inaugural season
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KIRKLAND — Jack Frost is nipping at more than your nose. Actually, "nipping" isn't even the word to describe standing on Juanita High School's football field sideline as the December misty rain swirls in the night air.
The Astroturf is almost frozen and the murky chill creeps up your legs until you feel like the victim of some evil comic-book creation who is turning everyone into a human Popsicle.
The 45 women on the field lace up 20 pounds of football equipment and scurry to the 50-yard line for an average three-hour practice twice a week — minimum — in typical western Washington rain.
And there's no incentive to do this.
No money. No shoe commercials. No cool letterman's jacket and hopes of a college scholarship.
Most of these women have been through college anyway and started careers, families, life. Yet, after clocking eight hours in the courthouse, classroom or at the fire station, they drive from Tacoma, Snohomish or Capitol Hill in thick traffic to form the Seattle Warbirds, the area's first professional women's tackle football team.
Eight weeks into the inaugural Women's American Football League season, the Warbirds are 6-0-1 and pegged to vie for the World Women's Bowl championship in February in San Diego. Nothing, especially not icy rain, can stop them from playing now.
"I know it's nuts being out here," said quarterback Kim Walden, 34. "I really never thought we'd make it this far. I thought we'd fail financially, but we're still here.
"It's an achievement. Sure we have a long way to go, but I never expected that in my lifetime women would be playing football. It's such a sacred sport of men that it never donned on me that this would happen. But football gets into your blood and the only way to do it is to keep on playing."
Walden was a pioneer in the sport long before Warbirds Coach Michael Stuart and his family plopped down $25,000 to start the franchise in June. The daughter of a college quarterback, Walden first learned the position from her father.
When the Navy pilot was transferred to Japan, Walden played for the military base's secondary school's coed team as a freshman and sophomore. The coach was great. The fans weren't.
"They chanted, 'Girls don't belong on football field,' " Walden said. "At home and away games. I mean everyone — the whole crowd together. I felt like I was in a Jody Foster movie, It was amazing that me playing caused so much anger."
Walden moved on to receive her law degree from Washington and start her own practice in criminal defense in Bellevue. She has two children with her domestic partner and chose rugby over flag football as a recreational sport. But when news about the Warbirds floated her way, Walden had to try out.
Her father died 12 years ago, missing the chance to see his 5-foot-3, 130-pound daughter stuffed in pads under gold pants and maroon jersey topped with a gold helmet. Walden is at ease calling plays and has 291 yards passing in the first six games this season, completing 14 of 31 passes.
The Warbirds are primarily a running team because they play every game in some combination of a downpour. Their 34-0 victory over the Rose City (Portland) Wildcats at Juanita featured high winds and horizontal rain, creating a chill factor of 26 degrees. The team's 41-0 win in San Francisco was dubbed the "Mud Bowl" because the slushy brown turf was almost ankle deep.
"A real mess," Stuart said.
Most games, Walden simply hands off to running back Sara Keys or fullback Sharon Williams, who rank second and third, respectively, among WAFL rushers. Both have 10 touchdowns apiece.
Saturday the Warbirds host the Hawaii Legends (4-2) at Juanita.
Dolls to divas
It may seem novel, women banging heads in the pursuit of a touchdown, but it's not.
In 1926, a NFL team called the Frankfort (Pa.) Yellow Jackets employed a women's team for halftime entertainment and in 1965, Cleveland talent agent Sid Friedman started a women's semipro tackle football league as a "gimmick." The two-team barnstorming effort in Akron and Cleveland was called the Women's Professional Football League, which grew to include three more cities in Ohio and teams in Pennsylvania and New York.
The curiosity of women playing reached its heyday in the 1970s with teams like the Oklahoma City Dolls and the Tucson Wild Kittens playing in the National Women's Football League, drawing about 1,000 fans.
About 20 years passed before current WAFL founder Carter Turner teamed with Terry Sullivan to form the second Women's Professional Football League (WPFL) in 1999. They launched an 11-team league in 2000 that was drenched in scandal — from missing money to forfeited games and teams stranded at airports.
Turner separated from Sullivan and the league when investor Larry Perry stepped in as the Houston Energy were named Women's Super Bowl champions in January 2001.
But Perry, a Colorado-based realtor, never materialized his million-dollar plan and teams fled the league, leaving a ragtag group of eight teams to complete a second season. Meanwhile Turner, 48, started the WAFL, a league which includes Seattle, Portland and 14 others teams stretching from Hawaii to Tampa Bay.
"Women's football is not a get-rich-quick investment," Turner said. "I'm in this to see women's football grow into the pee-wee leagues and high-school teams. That's going to take time, and unfortunately some people didn't understand that."
The WAFL is one of two heavy hitters in pro women's football. Catherine Masters, who used to advise Turner in the WPFL, started the National Women's Football League (NWFL). Her league completed one season with 10 teams last spring. For 2002, she expanded her league to 22 teams with names like the D.C. Divas that are set to kick off in April.
"A lot of the negative that's gone on with women's football is because most of the people involved are men who want to do it for the money," said Masters, 57, who has a history in the music industry and sports public relations. "Our mission is to build a really solid league that's professional."
Master's Nashville-based league, which charges $35,000 for a franchise, turned a small profit last season. It was enough for her to buy a company motor home to tour around during the season — an easier task than it might seem since none of the NWFL teams are west of the Mississippi River.
Many believe the NWFL will withstand the handful of other leagues playing today. One main reason why is because of the league's spring schedule.
"Women's football is different," said Heather Davis, player/general manager of the Mass Mutiny in the NWFL. "Some parts of the world are not ready for us, which already makes it hard. We played in the fall in the WPFL and had all this competition from colleges and pro. For three games we played at the same time as the New England Patriots. Even our devout fans wanted to see them over us.
"The experience has been much better in the NWFL. The nicer weather draws a better crowd, which will help us make money."
Turner, a former NBA and AFL player, said he wanted his league to play during the traditional fall football season for exposure. The Warbirds' Stuart wants to play in the spring and is thinking about joining the NWFL in 2003 because of the heavy toll weather has taken on his team.
"We're keeping an open ear," said Stuart, who already plans to play in an independent spring league. "What I'd like to do is see someone consolidate all the leagues into one or two leagues because we've got something that's marketable, but we can't take it to the next level with little pockets of teams and leagues here and there."
Bright future?
At season's end, the Warbirds will be lucky if they can afford to buy a burger with their earnings. The players are contracted to a profit-share after a minimum 25 percent is subtracted from any earnings for a pool of money to be divided among the teams.
"Yeah, I guess I won't be taking that big vacation," joked defensive back Kim Hauser, 31.
It's a bitter sacrifice considering what the team has been through so far this season. Deaths, injuries, layoffs at Boeing, Sept. 11th, 12-hour van rides for games in California, and players such as lineman Lana Coluccio quitting the team because of work conflicts — the team has absorbed it all.
And continues to show up.
But like other grassroots teams in the Seattle area, the Warbirds are finding marketing to be the greatest challenge. With the backing of the NBA, the WNBA Storm averaged a league-worst 5,954 fans at KeyArena last summer while the Seattle Thunderbirds hockey team struggles to draw 3,000 fans.
"Seattle has changed the way it views itself," said Thunderbirds General Manager Russ Farwell. "It sees itself as a big-time sports town now and really the Mariners don't help because it's tough to get exposure. But you just have to adjust."
The Warbirds drew about 1,500 fans to their opener on Oct. 27 and the fast start has generated a modest rise in merchandise sales. But their biggest sponsor ponied up $2,500, while the team might have to pay $15,000 in flight arrangements if it advances to the playoffs.
League-wide, the San Diego Sunfire drew 5,200 for its opener and averages about 3,000 fans, which is why it is hosting the league championship. But the front office depends on trade of services and volunteers to keep afloat. Turner said he has talked to the NFL and all the major cable companies about supporting the league, but everyone is in a wait-and-see mode.
"It ain't about the money right now," said Melinda Fugate, a 6-foot, 250-pound center playing her first organized sport. "It's about getting a chance to play a sport we couldn't play before. That's why we're here, because we love this experience. That other stuff will come."
Jayda Evans can be reached at 206-464-2067 or jevans@seattletimes.com.