Kingston’s first women’s tackle football team leaving everything on the field

They’re quick, they’re agile, and they hit hard.

“I like to hit, I like to get all my anger out,” Jayden Ryan said.

But most importantly: they’re young women.

“The toughness and the grit that they’ve shown, and how much they’ve bought into being football players, and not just people who play football, it’s been really inspiring to see,” Kingston Sharks head coach Cam Davidson said.

Football and Kingston go hand in hand. Whether it’s youth, junior or senior rep, high school or university, there always seems to be some football going on.

And now you can add the OWFL to that list. The Ontario Women’s Football League is in its second season, and the Sharks are fielding a team for the first time this year.

The league plays six-on-six rules, meaning with only 11 players on the roster, some are pulling double-duty by playing both offence and defence — and that’s just fine with them.

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“We’re all working together. We’ve got players that are pretty much playing a lot of positions. so we’re all just trying out new positions as we go,” Ryan said.

Most of them are playing football for the first time.

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“I’m actually a cheerleader,” Shaye Boyce said. “So I never would have imagined playing football. But it’s definitely the right decision for me.”

The significance of being Kingston’s first women’s football team is not lost on the Sharks — and they’re embracing their role as pioneers in the sport.

“It definitely means a lot. It’s good to be role models for other little girls who might want to grow up doing it,” Boyce said.

“It’s cool to know that in the future this team might become something awesome and we helped to get it off the ground,” Victoria Elkington added.

The Sharks have exceeded even their own expectations by posting a record of 4-2 in their rookie year —and qualifying for the playoffs, which is not bad considering the team started out with an Instagram post calling for players to come join.

“It’s gone pretty good. It’s been a big adventure for a lot of us girls on the team,” Waverley Kendall said. “But it’s been a great experience.”

“We went to our first game in Gatineau (Que.) and won. That’s the first time a lot of us have really played any sort of really competitive game and it was a very good feeling to know that we accomplished something,” Elkington added.

The season has gone so well that they’ve already committed to a fall league and are hoping their success this spring and summer will lead to more girls hitting the gridiron.