Blitz gals gear up for 2nd season
Gearing up for an April opening on a new field in the heart of downtown Salt Lake City, one of two Utah all-female, full tackle football teams, the Utah Blitz, has started practices and will be competing within their division in the national Women’s Football Alliance (WFA).
Founded in 2009 by four, out lesbians, Utah Blitz was formed when Utah’s former indoor women’s tackle team, Avalanche, disbanded. The founders, Concetta Defa, Brooke Perkins, Judy Rich and Chrystle Kerfoot, still organize and run the team after two years. They make sure the team has a proper coaching staff, they do the scheduling, planning and arranging the team schedule, which includes travel and guest team stays. It’s also important to work with individual players and the coaching staff to create a team camaraderie that will produce a winning formula.
“For me, my friends talked me into it, but for a lot of the girls they always wanted to play but they never got to,” said Defa, co-founder, executive board member, and team nose guard. “On our team, it doesn’t matter if you are straight or gay. We are there to watch each other’s back. We are a team.”
A full Utah Blitz roster is 40 players, but only 30 players have committed. The Blitz are open to adding new players but are looking for athletic prospects who might be able to catch on quickly and not hurt themselves. As a full-contact sport, women who have not played any sports for years tend to need more practice and conditioning than their male counterparts who may have played sports every year.
“Two gals moved from Idaho who were former players in the league, and two gals were from the Portland Fighting Fillies team,” Defa said. “Our team is incredibly better because of the girls that are returning and have experience, the new girls from other teams, and our coaching staff.”
Returning this year on the coaching staff is Dave Charley, or Coach D, who was an assistant coach last year, but took on the role of head coach for the 2011 season. Charley is assisted by another former assistant coach from last year plus four new assistant coaches, one of which is his father.
“We have a couple of women who are coming to practice that may coach down the road,” Defa said. “Our current coaches are teaching these ladies to coach as they get in shape during practice play.”
The cost to run a team with several months of organized practice and a full season averages $47,000. The teams in the WFA are non-profit, (C)7 sports clubs. Each team finds local sponsors to help pay for the costs of running the team during the season. Main costs are bus travel to opposing team’s cities and hosting the teams that travel to Utah to play on the Blitz’s home field. The Blitz covers hotel costs for the visiting team to stay comfortably while visiting Utah.
Locally, Red Robin West Valley has returned for the second year as sponsor, supporting the Blitz with game sales of burgers and fries. Defa also hopes that IBEW, local Union 57, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, will return as a sponsor for 2011.
Ashley Kuster, 26, is an out Park City native who moved to Roy. She joined the Utah Blitz after her friends were interested in playing football.
“You get a new family out of it. It isn’t just coming here to play,” said Kuster, who trains and teaches Tae Kwon Do. “I couldn’t find a better group of girls.”
Kuster says she had not ever watched or played football and she was a bit confused. “It is completely different positioning than Tae Kwon Do,” Kuster explains. “Playing football you have to be close to the ground as where Tae Kwon Do is up and out. They did football 101 with me.”
Kuster has learned how to tackle and is practicing the defensive back position. Currently looking for work, her teammates helped her get her gear from an old teammate from last season. Each individual team member is responsible for her own equipment including cleats, pads and a helmet. Player fees are $100 which includes a home jersey, an away jersey, belt, pants and socks. Players can find used gear to help offset the costs and in the next couple of years, the Blitz will have enough equipment to rent to new Blitz members.
Another rookie, married mother of two, Carrissa Sinnott, 34, found the team on the Internet.
“The high school I went to in Seattle was a state champion and girls weren’t allowed to play,” Sinnott said, who is practicing at the guard position on the offensive line. “We moved to Utah and I didn’t know anyone here and they are like family now.”
Her husband has supported her and the team, even baking cookies and bringing them to practice. Sinnott is a grad student at USU and her two boys are excited to start playing football.
“I know it sounds funny, women’s football, but it isn’t any different from a man’s team,” added Sinnott, who previously played water polo in college.
Utah Blitz has their supporters like Patty Galindo, who gives away free prizes in the stands during games and Anita Hutton, who runs the game days.
“I’m just the behind-the-scenes person. My sister is Crystle, one of the founders,” Hutton said. “I set up the booths, sell tickets to games, do the paperwork, and sell team apparel like sweatshirts, t-shirts, hats, blankets and bumper stickers.”
Individual game tickets are $8, but a full season pass for all four home games is $20, available online. Regular season play includes eight games, four at home and four away games, followed by the playoffs and the championship in July.
Last year at the WFA Championship in Las Vegas, members of the Blitz met a drummer from a rock band who they talked into composing a fight song. The team’s own fight song will be revealed at their first game of the season at Judge Memorial High School, on Saturday, April 3, at 5 p.m., against the new Spokane, Wash. team, the Spokane Scorn.
Current indoor practice is being held each Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon at the Kaysville Sportsplex Fieldhouse. All the home games are held at Judge Memorial High School, which is located at 650 S. 1100 East, Salt Lake City. For more information about Utah Blitz, visit www.utblitz.com or go to Facebook and search for Utah Blitz.
