Playing for pride

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Fall is traditionally known as football season, but the Des Moines Courage, which kicked off its season earlier this month, is not a typical football team. For starters, its players are all women, and they come from a wide range of backgrounds.

“We have players who work as teachers or police officers and another who owns beauty salon – we have people all across the board,” said Holly Stevens, a mechanical designer for Brooks Borg Skiles Architecture Engineering LLP in Des Moines.

Besides Stevens, several other Courage players work in the professional arena. Jennifer Shaffer is a Web programmer for Ortho Computer Systems in Ames and Holly Seifert is a job captain and regional computer-aided design manager for Bloodgood Sharp Buster Architects and Planners Inc.’s regional office in West Des Moines.

All three women played with the Courage last season, and they said their co-workers have grown used to seeing them hobble into the office on Monday, sometimes visibly bruised and battered.

“The owner of my company has season tickets to the games, and a couple of my co-workers always ask me about the games when they see me on Mondays,” said Shaffer, 29, who describes her role on the team this year as “being the one who runs the ball back and gets creamed.” She plays free safety and linebacker and returns punts and kickoffs.

Last season, the Courage’s inagural year in the 21-team Independent Women’s Football League, was challenging as many players had to learn the fundamentals of the game, said Stevens, who plays left tackle and defensive end.

“It was kind of like having a new job,” said the 31-year-old. “You’re nervous. You don’t know what you’re doing and you’re working to fit in. That’s how it was last year. Now that we know the process, we’re able to put it together naturally.”

“Last year was a big stepping stone for us,” said Seifert, also 31, who is currently on the injured list and hopes to resume playing later this month. Like other team members, Seifert has participated in athletics for most of her life, including college, but she found that football was far more challenging than she had imagined.

“You get a whole new appreciation for football after you’ve played it,” Seifert said. “Out of all the competitive sports that I’ve played, nothing compares to football. It’s the ultimate team sport.”

Shaffer said the Courage had one victory last season, and winning their first game this season April 2 against Kansas City was a big boost to the team’s morale and got the players excited for their nine remaining games.

“We have come so far,” Shaffer said. “We’re a lot more organized, and everything seems to flow together smoothly. The score of our first game this year was 50 to 20, with us being the winners. We had one win last year. But we’ve already met, and will hopefully exceed, last year’s record.”

The Courage began practicing for the current season last November, and by January, had built up to two three-hour practices each weekend. The team will play its final game June 18, but Stevens said many players will continue practicing once a week in the summer to stay in shape. Weekend practices and travel time to out-of-state games make for a busy week, especially for Stevens, who is also trying to fit in coursework to become a mechanical engineer.

“You have to be very committed and very dedicated to be on the team,” Stevens said. “You miss one practice and you just lost three or four hours of being educated.”

Shaffer said she had not planned on playing for the Courage this year because of the substantial time commitment, but in the end, she decided she would miss the action and the relationships she had formed. Plus, she said, another big reason that almost all of last year’s players returned this year is because they collectively want to prove to Central Iowa that women can play football.

“Some people’s attitude about women playing football is that it’s a joke, but I wanted to show that it wasn’t,” Shaffer said. “I’ve always been a hardhead. I’ve always known that I could do something if I put my mind to it, and this just enhanced that.”