LINCOLN -- Historically, there were no women's football teams and girls who ventured onto boy's teams were few and far between, yet the landscape of the sporting world changes.
As an ever-increasing number of females join teams to play football, questions emerge. What kind of girls are attracted to this physical game often played with brute force? Players from the Women's Spring Football League, which had a women's team based out of Lincoln in 2011-2012, stated various reasons for playing, but most cited the influence of fathers.
An Early Love
Brandi Doerr's zeal for playing football began with her dad, Ron Miller, and brothers, Jack and Kenny Miller, and she tried to go out for the sport as a teenager.
"I was told 'no,' that I couldn't play in high school," Doerr said.
In her mid-thirties, Doerr found herself being recruited. A coach approached Doerr during the Lady Rampage initial season in 2011 and she turned them down. At the end of the season she was approached again and this time said, "Yes, I'll do it."
"The love of the game has always been there," Doerr said. "I grew up out in the country, and cowgirl and cowgirl up, the whole bit. With my dad and my brother driving me, that's what really got me here today, because I developed an early love for it."
Burning Passion
Mariya McGillivary was playing as a teenager with the Kansas Phoenix. No stranger to the game, she played football during her seventh, eighth, ninth and 10th grade years of junior high and high school.
"I love football," McGillivary said, noting, "It was all boys, I was the only girl."
McGillivary hailed from Washington-Rural High School, of Auburn, a suburb of Topeka, Kan. Playing in only her second game with the Phoenix against the Rampage during the heat of July 2012, McGillivary was hesitant to say the team might be looking to her for leadership, but acknowledged she has spent more time on a football field than most women.
"I just have a lot more experience than they do," McGillivary said.
Like many women playing football, McGillivary lined up in a variety of positions on both sides of the line of scrimmage. Against the Rampage, she played halfback, wide receiver and cornerback. She demonstrated her athletic ability by contributing a touchdown with a 70-yard kickoff return and set up a second score by the Phoenix with back-to-back pass receptions that moved the ball from near-midfield to the two. McGillivary's inspiration for taking up the sport came from her father, who she said was an All-American halfback in high school. Despite the Phoenix loss, she relished the experience.
"I get to travel a lot, and I get to meet a lot of new people," McGillivary said. "It's really fun, and I enjoy football. It's a burning passion."
Playing For Fathers
Keena Hayes-Ford, who played center and on the defensive line, was one of the Rampage captains. After an emotional 22-12 win during the Rampage's last season of 2012 she spoke candidly.
"We were playing today for our fathers," Hayes-Ford said. "There's about four of us on the field today, our fathers are already in heaven."
Hayes-Ford's dad, Clifford Hayes, of Springdale, would play football with her every day when she was young. She treasures pictures of him playing football with her as an infant.
"He just has a football up against me and he's running with me," Hayes-Ford said. "He taught me how to play football."
"We were playing for the people who have already gone before us, and then we always play for the little girls out there, too," Hayes-Ford said. "Whenever they play football -- so it won't be as bad for them as it was for us."
SPORTS EDITOR'S NOTE: This story was compiled from coverage of the Lady Rampage based out of Lincoln during their last season competing in 2012 as a Women's Spring Football League franchise.
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