Had a chance to visit with 3 members of the semi-pro Central Pennsylvania Vipers women’s football team on Friday night. The Vipers play in the National Women’s Football Association, which has 34 teams across the country. Here is their story, from my story in Saturday’s New Era:
HARRISBURG – It looked and sounded like any other football practice.
Whistles blowing. Players maneuvering around cones. Blocking drills. Coaches yelping. Pass patterns. Shoulder pads cracking.
But upon closer inspection, those weren’t big, burly men inside of those uniforms.
Those were women – the 32 women who play for the Central Pennsylvania Vipers in the semi-pro National Women’s Football Association.
This is the sixth year the NWFA has been in business, and the Vipers – owned by Kerry Wisher and coached by Jim Haley – are a first-year organization.
And there they were Friday night, inside the Susquehanna Sports Center going through drills. Running routes. Footwork and agility exercises. Punt coverage. Cover 2.
This was not flag football or two-hand touch. This was the real thing.
Three Vipers’ players went to school in Lancaster County:
Kate Bermel, a 23-year-old offensive and defensive lineman, is a 2002 Manheim Township grad.
Erica Heller, a 26-year-old cornerback, is a Millersville University grad and lives in Manheim.
And Kelly Morris, a 27-year-old free safety, is a 1998 Conestoga Valley grad who recently graduated from Elizabethtown College.
All three played football growing up, but never for an organized team.
Until now.
“I don’t think women should be excluded from anything just because we’re women,” said Heller, who played basketball, softball and soccer and ran track at Biglerville High School before heading off to MU.
“A lot of us have the desire to play football, but just haven’t been given a chance. This is our opportunity to play, and I’m definitely happy for that.”
It hasn’t been a very happy start for the Vipers, who are 0-2 after dropping a 25-6 decision at home to Erie on April 15 before falling 41-0 last Saturday at Philadelphia.
There are 34 teams in the NWFA, and the Vipers compete in the Central Division along with the Pittsburgh Passion, Erie Illusion and Cleveland Fusion – three veteran teams that have been through the wars. In fact, Pittsburgh has a SupHer Bowl league championship victory under its belt.
“I know Pittsburgh made 40 cuts this season,” Morris said. “We don’t even have 40 players on our team.”
So the Vipers are taking some baby steps. But Bermel, Heller and Morris are enjoying the ride.
“We definitely want to win,” said Heller, who manages a daycare center in Manheim.
“We won our first scrimmage and that really gave us a boost. This is a first-year team and some of us haven’t played before. So some of our players are still learning, and some of our players are hitting and getting hit for the first time.”
And make no mistake: the hitting is real.
“No ifs, ands or buts,” said Bermel, who played lacrosse at Township and rugby in college at Bucknell, “there is hitting – hard hitting.”
It wouldn’t be football without hitting, and if you play in the NWFA, you hit – or get hit.
“Women aren’t always supposed to be rough and tough,” Heller said, “but this gives us a chance to let that aggression out.”
And to the people out there who don’t think these ladies should be putting on shoulder pads, running skinny posts or blitzing the quarterback?
Get over it.
“I think there are some people out there who really, honestly think we’re playing flag football,” said Morris, who played for the Bay State (Mass.) Warriors in the International Women’s Football League for one season in 2003 after playing softball and volleyball for CV in her high school days.
“I think there are also some people out there who doubt a woman’s ability to hit or tackle. But we can be physical and we can overcome those stereotypes and play this sport.”
Members of the Vipers – whose ages range from 19 to the mid-40s — play the sport for free. There are no paychecks. In fact, players have to pay for their uniforms and for travel expenses. The team has a couple of corporate sponsors, but everything else is paid for out of pocket.
“We truly are playing for the love of the game,” Morris said. “Our satisfaction is getting to go out there and hit somebody on the field.”
And if you truly love the game – male or female – it really doesn’t get any better than that.
“I love the camaraderie and just being on the team,” said Bermel, who also plays in an organized women’s ice hockey league in
Lancaster.
“We have moms and we have people in their 40s. We have people in the business field. We have people in the army. It’s great to see all of these different women out here playing football.”
Women like Bermel, Heller and Morris, who are finally getting the chance to play the game they loved growing up.
JEFFREY REINHART
