Oregon’s first official high school girls’ football team is emerging, and it’s happening at our very own Ida B. Wells High School. It is no secret that there is a major lack of women in football. It is one of the few sports where it is still rare to find girls playing, much less on a team of their own. High school girls are banding together to change this and create an IBW girls’ football team.
The team, still in its early stages, is not an actual team yet. Instead, it’s a group of eight girls who joined the (mainly male) JV2 football team. Before there can be an official girls’ team, there needs to be enough players. The first step was to encourage as many girls as possible to get out to summer practices. There was a turnout of 25 girls collectively with about 12 per practice. No commitment, just a fun time with a supportive group all learning the basics.
This was done via word of mouth and Instagram. Zorina Johnson, currently a sophomore at IBW, was a leading force in this process. After playing on the JV2 team in the fall of her freshman year, she decided to start a girls’ football team that spring, along with many other girls.
Football is a very traditionally American sport. It has been a huge part of the culture in the USA and still is. The Wall Street Journal says that, on the topic of the NFL, “Nothing else so clearly represents America—the good, bad, loud, violent, ugly and beautiful.” This may point to why there is still such a lack of gender diversity within the sport. We as a society have yet to let go of our intensely male association with football.
“I oftentimes feel like it’s a very tough-man sport, where if you’re hurt, you just keep going and if you can’t do it, just go harder,” said Johnson. She explained that there is more to football than hand-to-hand combat. It is a heavily technical game that also relies on reading the field.
Football can easily be named one of the most male-dominated sports. There has yet to be an official high school girls (tackle) football team in the state of Oregon. Other sports such as soccer, basketball, or swimming have both men’s and women’s teams which have grown massively in popularity over the past decades. While those sports are far from perfect when it comes to gender equality, they are many years ahead of football. “It is kind of upsetting,” Johnson said, “there’s no women’s football, and it’s such a respected sport in America.”
Girls and women have limited options when it comes to football, especially tackle football. Girls who are interested in football are told to play flag football or rugby. Amelie Chureau, an IBW sophomore said, “I don’t want to play flag football, I want to play football.”
Flag football is a variation of the more common tackle football that we are familiar with. The two have very similar rules except for one major component, physical contact. Tackling is an essential part of football and flag football substitutes this for flags. Every player has a flag attached to them and when it is ripped off, it is the equivalent of tackling them.
Both sports have their draws and there are a number of reasons why someone might choose to play one over the other, safety for example. Yet, tackle and flag football are very different. It is unjust to use flag football as an alternative for “female football.” Why are we still searching for an alternative rather than simply letting women play football, and why are we so afraid to let women be physical?
While it’s a bit late in this season to join, it is still possible and there are many more seasons to come. Chureau said, “The more girls that show up, the more comfortable the environment will be.” This group of girls has shown that if you are a girl interested in playing football you don’t have to let stigma or fear hold you back. Even if you have no experience whatsoever, there is a community of players and coaches there to support you.
