By Michael Wojtychiw
In 2015, Jennifer Welter became the first female coach to ever coach a football team when she was hired as an assistant coaching intern with the Arizona Cardinals.
Last year, the Chicago Public League (CPL), in conjunction with the NFL’s Chicago Bears, became the first league to launch the sport of high school girls flag football in Illinois, fielding more than 20 teams in that inaugural season.
So it only made sense that the two would combine for the Chicago Bears / CPL Nike Kickoff Classic, the official kickoff to not only the CPL’s flag football season, but the entire football season as a whole. Welter spoke to both the Lane and Amundsen squads before the two would face off in the first game of a boys-girls doubleheader at Winnemac Stadium Friday afternoon.
“It is amazing to see the rapid growth of girls flag in Chicago,” Welter said. “I remember just three short years ago. We did the first all-girls camp with the Bears. To have seen it go from a small or medium-sized camp to 50 plus schools…Chicago right now serves as the model, what it can look like to have girls flag football leading the way from the inner city out to the suburbs. So cheers to Chicago for really setting the standard of how, how great the desire is and how well it can flourish with love and support from the school districts and the local NFL team.”
“Having Jen Walter here is like I’m in the presence of a celebrity in my eyes…First female NFL coach, that is the goal right there,” Lane coach Caroline Schwartz said. “Just being a part of this day as our first year in the program, we were pretty surprised and we prepared and we wanted to show up and make everybody proud. And I think we did that.”
“It’s so cool,” Lane quarterback Marissa Ulie said “It’s awesome that she’s the first female coach. I think that’s super inspirational and everything she’s done is super inspirational. This whole thing, like being able to play football, I love football. Like I watch football all the time, so it’s awesome.”
Last year’s flag football season had a good number of teams decide to form teams and participate, but the league saw its numbers more than double this year as over 50 teams now from the Chicago Public League field teams, as well as teams from the Western Suburbs and Rockford. The Bears will host the best teams from the CPL, Rockford and the Western Suburbs at the end of the year in a mini state tournament at Halas Hall.
“That’s why this is so exciting,” Welter said. “It’s in a period of exponential growth, it takes first sowing the seeds. You have to see that not only do girls wanna play, but they can play and then having the support to allow for that exponential growth.”
“And that’s a financial investment. That’s a time investment. That’s a field investment. It’s all of the things that it requires to host a game. And then to see it go from basically 20 something to 50 something. It’s only gonna continue to grow at that exponential rate.”
The day was special for both teams, but even more so for Lane. Not only did the team come up with a commanding 44-0 win over the host Vikings, it was also its first game in program history.
When Schwartz came to teach at Lane this year, one of the first things she did was inquire about a flag football team. Luckily for her, girls at the school had already not only started to inquire about playing, but also started to sign up.
“When I was coming over, I asked ‘Hey, can we do flag football?’ And they answered that we already signed up, so I asked ‘Can I be a coach?’ And they said yes,” Schwartz said. “So it was the summer of just trying to recruit and a lot of social media out there. There was just a ton of interest really, really early on.
“Then we had a camp, a lot of girls came out to the camp. We had a bunch of tryouts and we’re here with 21 awesome athletes. Getting the word out has been really fun and everyone is really excited for us.”
Players like Ulie had always had an interest in the sport but had no opportunity to play because nothing like this league existed prior until this year.
So when Lane started up a team, Ulie knew it was her time.
“I love that this team is awesome,” she said. “I think it’s amazing to be part of this team and just have an experience playing football and hopefully I’ll be able to find something in college, like a club or something to be able to continue doing this.
“But this year, I mean, hey, I’ll go as far as we can.”
Amundsen, on the other hand, played in the league last season and knew what to expect coming into the game.
Like their opponent, the Vikings were excited for the opportunity to play in the event and found it to be a thrill to be able to meet and hear from Welter.
“This was an awesome opportunity,” Amundsen coach Cameron McConnell said. “We certainly appreciate the Bears for pulling all this together. We appreciate our students and administration for letting us go ahead with this. And even though the game ultimately didn’t go the way that we were hoping, it was really awesome to be able to be a part of this and be part of the Kickoff Classic.”
In fact, the pre-game talk from the former NFL coach kind of helped calm the nerves of all of the girls on both squads.
“I was nervous, we were all really nervous,” Amundsen’s Ally Swerdlick said. “We had only played, I feel like max in front of 20 or 30 people. And they were always like really close family or friends and today, it was really different, but I think we all handled it well.
“I think like her speaking to both of us, I think it amped up both teams and it really got us mentally prepared for it. I think like her words like really inspired us to do our best and keep our head up.”
For Amundsen, the squad goes into the year in an interesting place as of the 11 girls on the roster, seven are seniors, three are freshmen and one junior, Jennifer Fleischman.
Swerdlick, who also bowls for Amundsen in the winter, is someone that her coach says is a leader through and through.
“Ally’s doing a great job, she played last year,” McConnell said. “She’s an on-field captain, right before Jen Welter spoke to everybody, Ally was going through checking everybody, reminding them of the rules, saying, ‘Hey, do this in this spot. They can’t do this here.’
“We’re learning on the fly, but I think everybody’s enjoying the opportunity and glad to be out here having the chance.”
For her, coming out for flag football and assuming the leadership role is one that she truly cherishes.
“Personally, I’d never thought I’d be on a football team,” she said. “I’ve been bowling since freshman year and I never thought I’d have the chance to do this. And with such an amazing group of people, it really is like a family. I’m like best friends now with some of the people on the team.
“So even if we lose or win, there’s still a sense of community. Not only with our small team, but like even today it showed like there is now a huge community out there that’s supporting us. And I think that’s really special.”
Ulie was the standout of the game, finishing with six touchdowns in Lane’s win and was named the game’s Player of the Game. Not bad for someone who didn’t know what position she’d be playing just a couple weeks ago.
“I’ve only played football with my brother and my dad, but I was thinking ‘Oh, if I can be QB, I’ll be QB. And if not, I’ll be a receiver,’’ she said about choosing a position at the beginning of tryouts. “I know how to throw so I kind of wanted to be QB, but I didn’t want to just expect to be QB.”
Both schools now prepare for the regular season to start up in a couple of weeks.
