USAFL Season Preview Week - Women Part 2

The final installment of our Women's Division preview showcases four teams who have been models for team growth, and whose numbers are among the best in the country in the female game.

More importantly, however, these clubs are putting pressure on the defending champions and doing it through a variety of different means.  Be it quick and pacy, or methodical and tactically, these clubs have pieced together success and are looking to take the next step.

Another year of an 8-team Women's Division is expected in Austin at the National Championships.  Will one of these squads be playing in the Grand Final on Sunday afternoon?

With successful recruiting over the last two years throughout the entire program, the Land of 10,000 Lakes make become the Land of 10,000 footy players by the end of the next decade.

Okay, I’m exaggerating maybe a little bit.  Just a tad.  Okay, a lot.

Either way, the Minnesota Freeze ladies have seen a new crop of players join their ranks, and their program has doubled since 2012.  They have sent enough players to Nationals over the last two years to field a full squad as well as a partial reserve one.  The numbers aren’t just there for fluff – 11 members of the club were selected for IC14 on both the Freedom and Liberty squads.

Despite the success of the club and the expansion of its roster, Minnesota still has not made it to the Grand Final.  In Dublin, they begin with two easy wins on Saturday before a hard-fought loss at the hands of San Francisco saw them fall short again.

2015 sees much of their vets return, hoping this will be their year.  Crafty Marie LaVictoire has proven herself at every level, and leads the charge for the blues.     The experience of Cathy Hoha, Bri Thiesen, and Jackie Juan in the forward line, provides a very formidable attack.  Becky Kraft has emerged as one of the team’s stronger members, and the diminutive but skillful Terri Tupper has her picture in the dictionary next to the word “tenacious”.

But what’s scary about the Freeze is that they have girls who haven’t hit their stride as footy players yet.   Jackie Thelen, Andrea Tobias, and Cathy Georgiadas are just getting started in their careers, and their time in Australia in August can only help their development, and their club.  It will also help Emily Smuder, who suffered a devastating injury during the International Cup, but is working hard for a return this year.

Dale Williams’ side comes at you with a little bit of everything.  Each of their players has different skillsets.  They’ve gradually been getting better, and continue to be among the top three teams in the country.  It’s only a matter of time before they break through.  Austin could be the stage.

Manhattan’s skyscrapers, the ones that adorn the jumpers worn by the club from the Big Apple, cast a constant shadow on the terrain that is the jewel of the Hudson River.

That the New York men head into this year as the defending National Premiership shouldn’t cast such a shadow, but rather energize program that has been in rebuilding over the last season or so.  In a city that never sleeps and is always moving forward, the Magpies head into this year with fire in their bellies and wins on their mind.

2014 was an up and down year for the ‘Pies, with new players getting acclimated to the sport, and each other.  Australian Julie Lee was an injection of life into the club, as was Ashley Singer in her first year.  Their Metro season built up a competitive edge, a late season battle with St. Albans Spurs was a huge learning experience, and they were joined by a half doesn’t members of the Toronto Blues come October.  Once they got to Dublin, however, they were completely overmatched.  Sunday’s win over Sacramento was a lift, and good reminder of how good this upcoming season could be.

2015’s version of the Magpies may very well take on the personality of their new coach, Christina Licata.  In her decade of playing footy, Licata gained a reputation of being a tough but smart defender, small in stature but a hard tackler.  In addition to helping mold the next generation of National team players with the Liberty, Licata will attempt to bring her side back to prominence.

In all, seven New Yorkers went to IC14, including their other defensive stalwart, Drea Casillas.  Allison Vorsatz, Lissa Regets, and Kim Hemenway are both skilled and tough hitters, and are able to switch the direction of play to throw off their opponents.  Janet Beyersdorf and Renee Coff bring athleticism to the team, adding to their slickness in the center of the park.  Taylor Davidson arrives from San Francisco to help add to the punch.  And Heather Serpico, arguably the biggest rising star of the team, has quickly become an important piece to the Magpie puzzle after just two seasons of play.

The determination is there, and the talent is there.  Playing well against Boston, and playing better against Montreal will help them get better.  It may take another year before they are on the same level as San Francisco and Denver, but they’ll be fun to watch.

The climb has been slow and steady for Sacramento since their foundation, but by 2014 they had amassed a team that could challenge most of the other teams in the women’s division.  These suns were slowly emerging from out behind the clouds over the course of the first half of the decade.

Against their regional rivals from San Francisco, the Suns took two out of three games from the Iron Maidens, and even the loss was only by one goal.  A late season win over debutant Portland gave Sactown a boost of confidence heading into Nationals.  They would bring a full squad of 24 to Dublin, and assumed the role of dark horse.

But when the gates opened, their race was stalled.  Overmatched by San Francisco and Minnesota, their closest game was against the combination of New York/Toronto, where they fell 15-8.

Disappointed from their effort last season, this season will see some new players join a Lady Suns team that is built for speed and quick ball movement.  Five members went to Melbourne last summer, led by youngster Alexa Blatnick, whose performance at IC14 led to a wonderful campaign for her club.  Lauré Kwoka returns from a semester in Australia with experience and some more gunpowder for her booming kicks.

Waiting in the wings from the Liberty development squad are Tiffany Chen and Victoria Schoennagel, who along with Helen Mondia Harvey and former Freedom members Elaine Schreiber and Erin Sheaffer form the veteran group of this team.

It’s hard to see Sacramento’s ladies going winless in Austin after the progress they have made.  They’ve proved they can beat the teams at the top of the division, they just need to do it when the pressure is on.

If you’re going to go into battle with a power that has defeated all of the brave heroes who have attempted to bring it down, you’re going to need armor.  Iron, in this case, will do.

The Maidens have gone mujer-a-mujer with the Denver Lady Bulldogs over the last two seasons on Sunday afternoon at the USAFL National Championships.  Though they have scored just four points in as many periods of football against the champs, they have showed that the juggernaut’s reign may not last longer.

So how did San Francisco get there?  The Golden Gate way – gather talent, mold them through a fierce local competition, then put the best out on the ground and have them go to work.  Yes, they did have some help from Arizona and Portland last season, but at its heart is a group of women who are very good, and who are knocking at the door of the premiership.

After doing battle with the Western teams and putting up a brilliant fight against St. Albans, the lady Gaters came to Dublin looking for revenge from their loss to Denver the year before.  They allowed just one point in pool play, that single behind coming in the fierce battle against Minnesota just to get to the final.  In the final match, they managed the first points on the Bulldogs in three grand finals, and played a game worthy of a championship.  They just didn’t score enough points.

A new year, a clean slate, and a straight path to glory awaits the Iron Maidens.  Nine players went to IC14, led by the omnipresent Jessica Estrada.  Brette Brower was the star of the club at Nationals, taking home joint-Most Consistent honors, and was named a Blackchrome All-Star.

Milli Bruce, who will join the Liberty coaching staff at midfield, brings a decades’ worth of experience on two continents to the center of the attack, looking for targets such as Jessica Lund, Julie Marks, and Yanni Castillo.

San Francisco’s efforts over the last two seasons have served notice that the cream is rising in the women’s division.  Other clubs will be there too, but the Iron Maidens have been as tough as their name on Nationals weekend.  To see them there fighting for the Grand Final in Austin should surprise none.