Campy Campolo doesn\u2019t always have the best view of the football action. By design, someone\u2019s often right in her way.<\/p>\n
But when she does get a clear glimpse of what\u2019s going on, Campolo can\u2019t help but go, \u2018Wow.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cWatching our receivers make amazing catches \u2013 I\u2019m not very talented at catching the ball, so to see them reach up over their shoulders and catch it and run 40 yards is amazing,\u201d the 24-year-old Auburn woman said. \u201cBut I know how to run into people.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why she doesn\u2019t always have a wide-open look. Campolo \u2013 who just finished a community college automotives degree and played softball and tennis at Jefferson High School in Auburn \u2013 is a fullback. And an outside linebacker.<\/p>\n
And a woman.<\/p>\n
Those receivers who make the amazing catches? They\u2019re women, too. So is the quarterback who throws the ball, the running backs who carry it, and the players on the line who do the down-in-the-trenches dirty work.<\/p>\n
All of them are part of the Seattle Majestics, whose roster is dotted with players from Kent, Auburn, Renton, and indeed from all as Washington\u2019s only all-female tackle football team.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s always something happening that\u2019s awesome,\u201d said 24-year-old Jackie Salguet, a Kent resident who plays on the line for the Majestics and who is getting ready to leave for another tour of duty in Iraq near the end of this month. \u201cI played football in high school in Japan. I was always into playing sports. In baseball, I was a pitcher and catcher. And I was the only female on the team.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s definitely not the case with the Majestics, a member of the Independent Women\u2019s Football League, which practices twice at week at French Field on the Kent-Meridian High School campus, went 8-0 during the regular season and opened the playoffs last Saturday with a convincing 35-0 victory against the Corvallis Pride.<\/p>\n
Three of the players \u2013 Camille Head, Heather Gallemore and Michel Volk \u2013 also own the team. One of the few male presences is head coach Mike Talley, who has taught and helped coach football at Hazen High in Renton.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the players\u2019 boyfriends went to Hazen, and he got in contact with me,\u201d Talley said. \u201cHe asked me if I wanted to (be the coach), and I said no. So he asked me to come out and watch one day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Talley did, and his coaching adrenaline quickly rose to the surface.<\/p>\n
\u201cI couldn\u2019t keep my mouth shut,\u201d he said with a grin.<\/p>\n
The Majestics certainly have plenty to talk about. Their 8-0 regular-season record included five shutouts. They outscored the opposition in those eight games, 174-27.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s about more than wins, losses and points.<\/p>\n
Much more.<\/p>\n
Options on the table<\/b><\/p>\n
Sports doors of every kind have swung open to women during the past four decades. Time was when they didn\u2019t have pole vaulting or triple jumping in track. They didn\u2019t have hockey. They didn\u2019t have wrestling.<\/p>\n
They do today.<\/p>\n
Now, football is finding its place in an ever expanding banquet of athletic options.<\/p>\n
\u201cI played soccer and softball. And when we moved to Utah, I did volleyball, basketball and track,\u201d said 39-year-old Heidi Corey of Kent, originally from California. \u201cI grew up watching UCLA football with my dad.<\/p>\n
\u201cI definitely would have played football.\u201d<\/p>\n
Corey, who plays primarily on the defensive line, is in her second year with the team. When she\u2019s not donning the pads and helmet, she works security at various events. (The team also has a scientist, a sports therapist and a couple of firefighters, among other occupations.)<\/p>\n
And while most people might raise eyebrows at the notion of a woman playing football, Corey got just the opposite reaction from her acquaintances.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey said, \u2018Yes, it fits you perfectly,\u201d said Corey, who recalls her favorite football moment vividly: her quarterback sack, which came in a game against the Sacramento Sirens.<\/p>\n
\u201cI came right onto the quarterback, right over the top of her,\u201d Corey said. \u201cAll you could see was her eyes. She didn\u2019t last too long the rest of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gallemore, a 34-year-old Renton resident who ran cross country and track and played basketball at Hazen, is in her seventh year with the team and was, in fact, one of its founders. A multi-talented player \u2013 she can be found at defensive end, tight end, wide receiver or long snapper \u2013 Gallemore has grown to love the game so much that she literally bought into it two years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest thing is just taking over this team as one of the co-owners,\u201d Gallemore said of her partnership with Head and Volk. \u201cIt\u2019s a fantastic experience. The old owner said, \u2018I can\u2019t do this anymore, I\u2019m walking away.\u2019 So the three of us threw our feet in and said, \u2018We can do this.\u2019<\/p>\n
Suffice to say that football \u2013 as a player or owner \u2013 wasn\u2019t even close to being on her radar as she grew up.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen I met someone tiny who played tackle football, and came to a practice. And I haven\u2019t been able to step away from it,\u201d Gallemore said.<\/p>\n
Head, a 33-year-old Renton resident who works for a company that helps provide simulator training at Boeing, has come to embrace the game that always has piqued her interest, but didn\u2019t provide much opportunity. Now, she\u2019s in her third year as a player and her second as a co-owner.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just glad to do something that I always wanted to do,\u201d said Head, a wide receiver and free safety who did soccer and cross country as a high schooler in Indiana. \u201cI\u2019m not that big of a person (she\u2019s listed at 5-foot-4, 120 pounds on the team\u2019s Web site), so people were a little concerned. But I grew up loving the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eager students of the game<\/b><\/p>\n
Talley sounds like a guy who clearly is in his element as coach. Different gender makes no difference at all, as far as he\u2019s concerned.<\/p>\n
\u201cFootball is football. Coaching is teaching,\u201d Talley said. \u201cThe veterans have some knowledge, and the new ones haven\u2019t played before and don\u2019t have any bad habits yet. So I\u2019m teaching them from ground zero.\u201d<\/p>\n
The combination seems to have clicked.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey play together,\u201d Talley said. \u201cWe\u2019ve had some pretty tough games. But in order to get where you want to go, you have to have tough games. In Corvallis (on June 14 in the regular-season finale), we were down 7-0. It\u2019s the first time all season we\u2019ve been behind.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Majestics rallied to win, 16-7, then completely dominated the Pride last Saturday. That set up a playoff contest against the Dallas Diamonds on July 12 in Seattle.<\/p>\n
WIth this group, though, final scores are just part of the story.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like the contact, the fact that you can go out and get out your aggressions on the field and still remain friends with all the other people on the team,\u201d Kent\u2019s Corey said.<\/p>\n
Added Head, \u201cIt\u2019s kind of like a big family of talented athletes who play together as a team.\u201d<\/p>\n
A team which \u2013 so far, anyway \u2013 has had quite a view from the top of the women\u2019s football world.<\/p>\n
FOR MORE INFORMATION<\/p>\n
THE SEATTLE MAJESTICS<\/p>\n
What: The only all-women tackle football in Washington.<\/p>\n
Where: The team practices at French Field in Kent, but plays home games at Seattle Memorial Stadium.<\/p>\n
How they\u2019re doing: The Majestics went 8-0 to win the six-team Pacific Northwest Division of the 40-team, nationwide Independent Women\u2019s Football League. They beat Corvallis in their playoff opener last Saturday, 35-0, and play again July 12 against Dallas.<\/p>\n
More information: Online at www.theseattlemajestics.com, or e-mail to info@theseattlemajestics.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Campy Campolo doesn\u2019t always have the best view of the football action. By design, someone\u2019s often right in her way.
\nCampolo \u2013 who just finished a community college automotives degree and played softball and tennis at Jefferson High School in Auburn \u2013 is a fullback. And an outside linebacker.
\nAnd a woman.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":7253,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-7252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7252"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7252"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=7252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}