The Central Valley’s one and only women’s full-contact football team, the War Angels, are preparing for their third season.
The War Angels make up one of 60 teams across the country in the Central Pacific Division of the Women’s Football Alliance. The team is based in Fresno, but players come from all over California to play on the team.
“We average at around 40 players on our roster and we have players from Los Angeles, San Francisco and we have a number of Fresno State alumni players as well,” Lisa King, founder of the team, said.
King, who has played on a women’s football team in Los Angeles, decided along with her husband Jeff, to create a women’s full-contact football team in the Valley in late 2009.
“My husband and I started recruiting players for the team in the fall of 2009 and we began our first season in the spring of 2010,” King said.
In the last two years of the team’s existence, King and her staff of coaches have taught most of the players on the team how to play football because the majority of the players have never played before.
“In 2010 and 2011 we have had the rookie of the year picked out of 60 teams,” King said, “So we do pretty well teaching the players how to play.”
The 2010 rookie player of the year, Chantel Wiggins, is a former Fresno State tennis player and the 2011 rookie player of the year, Jamie Fornal, is currently in Fresno State’s physical therapy master’s program.
“We really try to recruit college athletes to play for us,” King said. “There are no qualification for trying out for the team but we just ask that players be over 18 and have a desire to learn the game and have some athletic abilities.”
When Fresno State biology major Kylie Nave was asked if she would ever consider joining the team, there was no reluctance in her answer.
“I would definitely consider joining the team mainly for the exercise,” Nave said. “It would also be a good way for me to show my guy friends that women can play the same sports as men.”
As the team enters into its third season, King’s goals for the team include making it to the championships and gaining women’s interest for joining the lineup of players.
“Women have never been allowed to play football before and this would be an opportunity to actually not only play football, but play it well,” King said. “Women can play it at a high level and be taught by some of the best coaches in the league and most importantly they can have something to tell their grandchildren about.”
