This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The players are pounding through drills, clutching the football, muscling through pads and into a bag a few yards away. Saturday's game is just two days away, and this is the last workout.
Coach D. (also known as Dave Charley) is relentless, shouting, "Knees high! Knees high! Overemphasize!" On the sideline, the team mascot, Bella — a miniature Yorkie — is so excited that her yaps sound like shrill whistles.
This is the Utah Blitz, a women's football team, formed a couple of years ago as part of the Women's Football Alliance, a 60-team league that ranges from the Philadelphia Liberty Belles to the Los Angeles Amazons.
Blitz players range from 18 to 43 years old. They are stay-at-home moms, office workers, managers; one has a job title called "fulfillment." One's a police officer, another a firefighter and EMT; another is a driver education instructor who can handle "just about anything," said Concetta Defa, an electrician who long was into tae kwon do.
This is full-contact football, with blocks, tackles and, in the game I watched Saturday, at least one nasty face-mask violation by an opposing player.
Alicia Tucker, the first-string quarterback, is sidelined with a dislocated collarbone and muscle sprains earned at last weekend's game against the Silver State Legacy, one of two Las Vegas teams. This is her fourth year in the game; she started in Portland, Ore., where she played basketball, softball and soccer. The Portland Fighting Fillies played near her school, and at age 12, Tucker says, she told her mother she was going to play football.
And what did her mother have to say about that, I ask?
"She figured it was probably better that I play with the girls than with the guys," Tucker says. "She figured I was playing on an equal playing field, so go for it."
Like other teams in the league, the Blitz (motto: "Get up. Get loud. Get Blitzed.") have athletic trainers, coaches, physicians, officials and ball and water boys. They play by NFL rules, except the women kick off at the 35-yard line. Game attendance can range from about 200 to 1,000, says Defa, a defensive linebacker.
"This is indicative of Utah — look at the fan base for any of the major sports teams," she says. "Somebody's always talking about how the Utah fans are."
Come Saturday, there are plenty when the Blitz take the field at Judge Memorial Catholic High School. Despite her injury, Tucker is the kicker and punter, and she lofts the ball to the Las Vegas Showgirlz.
After the national anthem, and under lowering clouds and an increasingly chilly wind, it's game on.
The Showgirlz are a little bigger and rougher than the Blitz, but both sides play hard. Without their starting quarterback, there are few passes but plenty of nicely executed hand-offs.
Linebacker Krystal Meisner, who ranks high in the league for tackles, makes quite a few, as does tight end Myken Jensen.
The Blitz women hold on for about 30 minutes until the Showgirlz score, then land a two-point conversion. Later, the Blitz make it to the one-yard line, but a bad exchange between the quarterback and running back leads to a fumble that Las Vegas recovers.
No one scores during the second half, and by 7:30, it's game over.
Still, says Coach D., "Our ladies did well. We had to overcome some adversity out there.
"Several first-strings were out, and there was a lot of makeshifting. The ones that did step in did right for the occasion," he said. "We should have won that."
After the last whistle at 7:27 p.m., the two teams line march across the field sharing hand slaps, and then sit together at the 50-yard line for a while. The crowd starts to thin, and the players head up the bleacher stairs, exhaustion on their faces.
One woman stops to talk to waiting friends. "Sorry about the outcome," she says.
Then she adds, "It was awesome."
Peg McEntee is a news columnist. Reach her at pegmcentee@sltrib.com.