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Bruising Workout
Updated: 05/15/2009 at 1:49 PM
WOMEN'S FOOTBALL TRYOUTS
Bruising workout
PHOTOS BY PAUL CHAPLIN, The Patriot-News Cori Young of Reading, a Keystone Assault Hopeful, runs the 20-yard dash. "I just like the whole hitting aspect" of football, she said. BELOW: Heidi Johnson of Enhaut makes a leaping catch.
Monday, September 15, 2008
BY M. DIANE McCORMICK
For The Patriot-News What brings a woman out in 92-degree heat to dash 40 yards and do as many sit-ups as possible in a minute? Turns out, the same thing that attracts men to football. "I just like the whole hitting aspect," Cori Young of Reading said. Young was one of 15 women at Susquehanna Twp. High School's field on Sunday to try out for the Keystone Assault, a new women's full-tackle football team associated with the National Women's Football Association. The Assault formed from players and coaches who left the Central PA Vipers, part of the International Women's Football Association. The Vipers held tryouts at Harrisburg's William Penn School on Saturday. The compact Young did 40 sit-ups, while others stopped well before their minute ended. Young played running back for the Vipers last year and thinks she might play cornerback or wide receiver next spring, when the Assault play their season. Rookie Tracy Kretz of Harrisburg came out because her boyfriend told her about the tryouts, and she wants to get in shape. The former Michigan State University marching band member said she enjoys competition. "I've talked to a lot of my guy friends, and they think it's awesome," Kretz said. While women ran timed dashes for Assault head coach Tim Smart, they cheered each other on with shouts of, "Go, Lisa," or friendly taunts of, "Ha, ha, ha, I beat you." Rebecca Dipietro of Lancaster ran 40 yards in 5.39 seconds. The former high school track runner played football in 2005 and returned to be with friends. "I love the adrenaline, the rush," she said. Women "most definitely" need more opportunities to play competitive sports, she said. "Women have done a lot in basketball and boxing, and football's fairly new, but we have a chance," she said. Dominique Leonard, 12, of York Haven, a seventh-grader at Northeastern Middle School, said she wants to play football. At Assault tryouts, she was supporting her mom, offensive guard Latravia Leonard. "I think we can do things that men can do, and we can do it better," she said. At the Vipers' tryout Saturday, Shirley Watts of Duncannon -- an all-star last season -- said women have to find the will to play a bruising game....
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