The players of the Jersey Shore wave in the Hinchliffe stadium in Paterson, New Jersey, where the team will play their home games this season.
Ben Pawson / NPR
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Ben Pawson / NPR
Paterson, NJ – The Jersey Shore wave is one of the three new teams to join the National Women’s Football Conference this year. Now entering its sixth season, the WNFC is a semi-professional football league. Players sit in pads and helmets, and women are there to win. They travel to play teams in their division and compete to win the IX Cup – named in honor of the title IX – in June at the end of the season. The season starts on Saturday March 29.
In training, the quarter of the Karen Mulligan wave takes its helmet in place. She adjusts her pads and jogging on the middle of the field. Mulligan, alias Mully, aligns in front of a group of eager receptors. It is time for some rapidly evolving exercises.
“We make installation and the flowing knot.” Mully shouts to be heard on the wind, “switch to hash”.
Everyone within reach moves their position. Mully settles in her position. “Ready? Come on!” She turns back and releases football.
On the ground, the wide receiver Shayla Thevenin sprintes through the artificial lawn, going to the ball in time to pick it up against his body. “It’s crazy,” laughs Thevenin. “I’m there, and it’s just warming.”
Repeated tests and team
The tunnel inside the Hinchliffe stadium in Paterson, NJ, buzzes. Women dressed in brilliant tampons and uniforms – fresh out of their packaging – laughs and catch up.
The list of waves has more than 50 New York, Pennsylvania New York players and certain aberrant values such as New Hampshire and Ohio. Winning a place in the team did repeated tests.
“We did a few combined stations, and it was quite fun,” said secondary, who learned the team’s tests on social networks. She added: “We had to execute a 40 yards dashboard and make the jump, the rest and the pumps.”
Howard’s teammate and offensive line player, Infinity Brooks, Asbury Park, NJ, adds: “They wanted to see if you don’t happen. Even if you didn’t know what you were doing, would you like to stop? And I haven’t stopped. I’m not even the best at the moment, but I’m still not going to stop.”
Brooks had so much fun during the tests that she continued to come back, even if she had already secured her place. “Everyone was so welcoming and happy. I was continuing. It was fun. Everyone had a lot of mind. Everyone was beautiful. Everyone has good energy.”
The Jersey Shore wave is one of the three expansion teams this year at the National Women’s Football Conference. The other two are the truth of Atlanta and the winds of Chicago.
Ben Pawson / NPR
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Ben Pawson / NPR
Being able to adapt to playing football has not been given. Many of the Wave of the Jersey Coast confronted the opponents of the family and friends who said variations of: “It is not a sport for girls” or “you can be a cheerleader.”
The whole experience began to feel real for Vianca Borrero when she put her pads for the first time. “I actually have bigger pads because I wanted to be super protected.” The defensive line player added: “I looked a bit like a turtle in a shell because it didn’t really correspond. Then I had these pads, and I have the impression that everything is gathering.”
Brooke Avery is an outdoor backwards recruited and a member of the defensive line that grew up in a family obsessed with the Patriots in New England. His father wanted to call him after Drew Bledsoe, a former quarter of the Patriots. Avery played hockey competitively and was looking for a new challenge and a new sport when she heard a friend who played for the Florida Avengers that a team came to New Jersey. She has decided to try it, and so far, she loves it and is ready for the challenge of the first season.
“We have a name to do for ourselves. This league has existed for some time, and being a new team, there are a lot of expectations, especially in this area … So you know, we have a big wait to defend.”
Buy a team and bring it to Paterson
Dawn Sherman, director of health care and owner of New Jersey Wave, believes in his coaches and players. She aims to go to the IX Cup in June.
“My goal: winning the championship, of course. So I mean, why you put off, right? When you can go to the end,” she said forcefully. “I think the team is super motivated, meeting very well. And we have a lot of enthusiasm, and we will win matches.”
The mayor of Paterson, Andre Sayegh, is an enthusiastic supporter of the wave. He braved in the morning cold and windy to watch the team perform exercises.
“I am a big football fan. I am a fan of the New York giants, just in full disclosure. And I have never seen a football match for women,” said Sayegh. “When we were approached for the first time. I thought, forgive me, I thought it was flag football.”
This is a false common idea. Vianca Borrero thought she was recruited for a flag football team when she was approached to try for the team.
On and off the field
Monae Clancy is an indigenous patersonian. So when she runs on the field in the first home game on April 5, she will be applauded by a crowd from the hometown. The wave has gelled as a team, and many players used the word Sisterhood to describe the camaraderie.
“Everyone supports each other. Everyone pushes each other to their goal,” said Clancy. “Even if we have already proven that we can play, we already know that there is a more important goal. We must prove to the world that we can play.”
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