Prior to the start of this season, Dawson merged her Shockwave with the Portland Fighting Fillies. Dawson admits there was a bit of trepidation, but that by the end of one practice former rivals were already becoming friends.
On the field, the collaboration has been a smashing success. The Shockwave are 5-0 and have outscored their opponents 206-11. They play their final regular-season home game at Hillsboro Stadium at 6 p.m. Saturday against the Everett Reign.
At age 33, Diana Reuter is a tackle football rookie. A Fort Vancouver graduate who played college softball at Iowa State, Reuter said she had missed playing a competitive team sport over the past decade and was thrilled to learn about the Shockwave through a chance meeting.
A quarterback and safety, Reuter admits the WFA is a lot different than the Turkey Bowl pickup football she has played for years. But she is enjoying the learning curve, and is proud to be part of a team that shows both girls and boys that football is not only a boys game.
Crystal Steinmueller, who played on the 2000 state champion softball team at Prairie High School, is quick to set the record straight. The WFA is not a lingerie league. It is full-on tackle football that uses NCAA football rules.
“It’s women being dedicated. For a lot of us it’s a great way to have that team camaraderie again as adult women,” Steinmueller said.
It demands commitment — and $375 for the season. The team practices two or three days a week in Milwaukie, Ore. The eight-game regular season runs through early June and is followed by playoffs that could run into July.
“It’s a very big time commitment. You really have to love football,” sad Jenna Castro, the Shockwave center. “When its football season that’s what you do.”
A 2004 Evergreen graduate in her sixth season with the Shockwave, Castro said she is impressed by how the mothers on the team fit football into family life.
Dawson founded the Shockwave in 2002. She and a friend had gone to Seattle to try out for a team but decided the commute was too far to commit to that team, so Dawson started her own team.
In 2012 the Shockwave won their division and played in the Independent Women’s Football League’s Tier II championship game. Portland lost 27-0 to the Carolina Phoenix in that Founders Bowl at Round Rock, Texas.
But it was still a thrill to play.
“That was my favorite thing that I’ve done where we lost,” Castro said.
Castro said she wanted to play football in middle school, but that wasn’t an option. She said it took a couple of seasons to get comfortable with the differences between playing on the offensive line and the defensive line. But she always loved the contact.
“It’s wonderful. I love the fact that something is going to happen every single play,” Castro said.
“I love that I get to knock pads on every play.”
That contact can leave its mark, as 15 seasons have for Dawson. But the lifelong friendships and thrill of the competition make the aches and pains worth it, she said. And Dawson has incentive to play at least one more season. In 2017 her youngest daughter, the only one who wants to play football, will be old enough to join the team.
Besides, Dawson said, “If I’m going to put that much time and energy into it I might as well be playing.”
