PORTLAND – After a tough 0-8 season under first-year Head Coach Jon Bastian, the Maine Rebels – an Independent Women’s Football League (IWFL) team based out of Portland – are looking to augment their numbers with some fresh talent. To this end, the Rebels held the first of several combines for new prospects at Deering High School on the morning of June 25.
Uncooperative weather kept attendance limited, but Bastian is optimistic that things will pick up at the next combine, which is tentatively scheduled for July 23.
“We had to take a converted lineman and make her a quarterback this year, and we mainly relied on our running game to get us through,” said Bastian, who, in addition to his duties with the Rebels, is also an assistant coach for the Scarborough High School football team. “We’re trying to find a quarterback and a few more linemen. We have tons of receivers and d-backs and linebackers, but we don’t have a lot of linemen, and we need a quarterback, and perhaps somebody who can shine at tailback.”
Saturday’s tryout was really about the basics: just some simple running drills, pushups, sit ups, and exercises of that nature just to see if the raw talent had the physical abilities needed to learn the game. Both the veterans and the rookies on hand seemed grateful just for the chance to play the game.
“When I was in high school in northeastern Pennsylvania we didn’t even have a boys team, but I would have killed to have been able to play,” said Lisa Biesecker, 50, a lineman from Wells. “We had a real tiny school. Bigger schools did have teams, but we were really small. So I learned these skills here. A friend of mine played, and she said you should try. I had only played backyard with my brother.”
Most players on hand seemed to have learned about the team – or the preceding organization, known as the Maine Freeze that was once based out of Old Orchard Beach – through word of mouth.
“A friend of mine actually plays for the Sabers (an EFL team that plays at Fitzpatrick Stadium), and I asked if he knew of any women’s football league,” said Michelle Raymond, 28, who hails from Belgrade. “So I Googled it and found out that they were holding try-outs this Saturday, and here I am. I am a natural fan of sports and anything competitive. I played soccer, basketball and track in high school. I am hoping to do play a position that involves running.”
As you might expect, most women entering the league have very little direct playing experience in football. But that doesn’t limit the intensity of the competition, which frequently unfolds in the tried-and-true smash-mouth style of the old days.
“I was always a fan of football,” said Heidi Paulette, 36, of Saco. “And, actually, in high school my mother wanted me to play, but there was no such thing as girls playing football then, so it was like ‘well, I guess I’ll play soccer.’ The first team I started with was the Maine Freeze, and I started with them about 11 years ago. I had a little bit of knowledge about it then, but I had never played.”
Like Paulette, a few of the players on hand commented that they wish they had been allowed to play in high school, stating that they clearly proved they were capable of it by being on the Rebels. Alicia Paige of Gorham, who graduated from Windham High School in 2000, went so far as to say that a lot of girls are never really allowed to play up to their full potential because of the restrictions imposed on them by society.
“I think society treats girls different from boys from babies on up,” Paige said. “They hold them differently, they treat them differently, they talk to them differently, and I think that carries right through to all the sports. If you take a softball team and a baseball team and watch them play, it’s a totally different level. And that’s society. I think we should be able to play just as hard as boys, and we’re proving with this team that we’re able to.”
For his own part, Bastian would just like to see more women come out and give it a try. Intermittent rain showers and unseasonably chilly temperatures on Saturday kept the attendance low, but he hopes to see more women – who perhaps never even gave playing football a second thought – come out in the coming weeks, and urged interested players to keep abreast of the announcement of the next combine at www.mainerebels.com.
In the long term, he would like to see the Rebels evolve a stronger passing game, similar to that featured by Montreal. When the Blitz came to town earlier this spring, they shredded the Rebels with a spread offense, driving the length of the field on eight consecutive passing plays. But in order to do something like that, Bastian needs more prospects to show up.
“I would say probably half the team this year were rookie players,” Bastian said. “Some came in with some knowledge, from husbands, boyfriends, etc. about the game, but they didn’t know the technique and intricacies of the game itself. Our practices are all about technique and trying to get them to do the right things, and make them into football players.”
“We’re competing with women’s rugby, women’s softball, women’s soccer league’s, women’s basketball leagues, and those type of things,” Bastian added. “I just want some of these athletes to come out and say, you know what, I’ll give it a try.”
Maine Rebels Head Coach Jon Bastian, who also coaches atSend questions/comments to the editors.
