Women's Football League Forms

Aug. 27 -- Are you ready for women’s full-contact, tackle football?

In Australia, they get geared up for the start of the country’s popular women’s American-style football season with something called “Battons Up” — a night of drinking, dancing and dollars to spread the word and to earn some cash for the West Australia Women’s Football League.

Over on this side of the Pacific, things are not quite as festive, but excitement and hope are building for the inaugural season of the Women’s Professional Football League.

The Oklahoma City Wildcats are hosting open tryouts this weekend at Taft Stadium, and they hope to attract 500 prospects. The Colorado Valkyries drew 300 hopefuls to a tryout in Denver earlier this month.

The WPFL kicks off its 10-game inaugural season on Oct. 14 with 14 teams. There are plans for a Championship Title Game on Feb. 3, to be followed two weeks later with the WPFL All-Star Game in Miami.

Expanding Vision for League

Carter Turner and Terry Sullivan founded the league in 1999 with two charter teams — the Lake Michigan Minx (now the Milwaukee Minx) and the Minnesota Vixens — and launched a six-city barnstorming tour to expose the public and media to the new league. Turner called the response “excellent,” saying one game attracted 6,000 spectators.

“Soon we will be able to fill Soldier Field,” said Turner. “But for now we are really happy to be filling stadiums that hold up to 3,000.”

WPFL teams include the Daytona Beach Barracudas, which will have Selina Worsley, Australia’s top professional women’s rugby player, on the roster. Last year’s Vixens’ roster included a NASA engineer, police officers and Wendy Brown, a former heptathlete who competed in the 1988 Olympics in Seoul.

Look for 11 new WPFL expansion teams by the year 2002, including the Hawaii Waves, if all goes according to plan.

‘I Believe in the League’