The seconds were ticking away, the score was 27-21, and I was pretty much drained of energy.
He had one bandaged knee, a broken finger and sweat running down his face, but he knew the other team had just one more play to make.
As I was lining up, I felt like my body was going to burst, but we were inches away from a great play. When the ball was snapped, I saw the screen play and sprinted down the field with my last breath, but my teammate was on my heels, shoulder-checked me, knocked me out of bounds, and the whistle blew.
We were national champions. I went undefeated my first season in American football and won a national championship title at the end of it. Yet, whenever the topic of my choice of sport comes up, the first question I get is, “Why would you want to play such a physically demanding sport, if you're a girl?”
There are many reasons – passion, team spirit, competitiveness, but primarily because I absolutely love the sport and want more women and girls across the UK to know that this sport isn't just for big American guys.
Where it all began
In February 2022, a friend invited me to try it out when I got a pair of football cleats, and I started my amateur American football career with my local team, Edinburgh Wolves. I was not a very athletic person, so it was a big challenge for me to be in an unfamiliar environment and meet many new people who had been playing for years.
But the experience was completely different from what I expected. Everyone was very kind and really helped me understand what American football is like. I had only watched two NFL games before, so it was mostly memorizing the positions, plays and rules, but soon I understood everything.
I was assigned to the defensive line and stayed there for three years. Think of the NFL's Nick Bosa, JJ Watt, Aaron Donald, etc. My job was to plug gaps to prevent the ball carrier from getting through them and to get to the quarterback and stop him from throwing the ball or running with the ball.
We're on the defensive front and we have to read and react to the play as it happens, and most guys on the defensive line tend to be tall and big, which I'm not, but I'm short and agile, so I've been able to use that to my advantage and sneak around other guys and make big plays when I need to.
With our first game looming just a few months later on the 7th of May I was filled with nerves, however we won both games by considerable margins and I began life in the Division One league with a 2-0 record. We played against rivals East Kilbride Pirates and a newly formed side, Newcastle Shieldmaidens.
In fact, they didn't lose a single time that year, going 8-0 all season and heading straight to the playoff finals against the Division 1 Central and Division 1 South champions and their runners-up.
Firstly they faced Leicester Falcons, the runners-up to the Division 1 Central title, winning 25-12 to set up a final match against Peterborough Royals.
This was one of the toughest games of my rookie year, and not just because we had already played a tough game and the sun was beating down on the artificial turf pitch.
Injury? What kind of injury?
Unfortunately in the final game I made too big a tackle on the East Kilbride Pirates quarterback and dislocated my knee. I was instantly scared and rolled onto my back with my heart pounding and the adrenaline numbing the pain.
As I limped off the field with just a few weeks to go until those aforementioned playoffs, my heart sank, finally reeling from not being able to play sport for the first time in my life, but my Scottish spunk and pure clownish confidence wasn't going to let my rookie dream slip away.
I took a few weeks off after that, and then on the bus to the game, after telling my parents I was going to “watch” the game, one of my teammates taped my knee until I had almost no feeling in or around the joint.
I played both matches of the final with a bandaged knee and half of the second match with a broken pinky finger, but sneakily managed to get it back in. The grit and determination it took me to push through the pain in both matches to secure victory taught me the true power of the human body and the triumph of mind over matter.
I had a lot of little injuries over the three years, mostly to my arms and fingers, and when you play defensive lineman, it always affects you in some way.
Season 2 was a learning curve
After finishing my first season with a 10-0 record, the Edinburgh Wolves made their first foray into 9-a-side football against other strong teams. In the new 9-a-side league we again faced Peterborough Royals, as well as Leeds Chargers, Birmingham Lions and London Warriors.
In our first game, we beat the Peterborough Royals 34-20, which gave us some hope for the season. Having never lost a game of American football before, this was a real learning experience for me and my teammates.
After this point we didn't win any more games and finished the season 1-3 in 4th place. The change to 9-man and the addition of special teams really pushed the team's limits because it meant the field was wider, the games were longer, and we just had more to contend with overall.
This season we had our fair share of injuries and it changed the whole outlook on football. We had some veteran players on my team, including our coach, but our rookies were dealing with some new losses and I think that pushed us all to be better players.
A new team and a whole lot of chaos
This year, with training locations changing and teammates leaving, we were left with so few players that we feared we wouldn't even be able to field a seven-a-side team.Then something totally unexpected happened – we decided to cross division lines and merge with Scottish rivals East Kilbride Pirates.
While the men's team competed in separate leagues, the women's team formed one team and named it Caledonia Chaos. Very fitting, don't you think?
Formed just a few weeks before the start of the season and with just one training session under their belt, Chaos embarked on an adventure no one could have predicted. As of this writing, Chaos is 6-0 and the winners of the NWFL Development North league.
The final tournament is on July 27th. We will be going undefeated throughout the season and aim to progress to the playoff finals in August with high confidence in the team.
International debut coming soon
There is a GB team which is open to both men and women, but I have heard there is a smaller team representing HM Fort Roughs, a former Royal Navy gun battery. The Principality of Sealand was formed in 1967 by Prince Paddy Roy Bates and his wife Princess Joan Sealand, which led to the creation of the Principality of Sealand Seahawks American football team.
In the summer of 2021, husband and wife team Mike and Nia Ireland came up with the idea to create the Sealand Seahawks along with Mikey Gray, and now there is a girls' team and a flag football team as well.
I heard about it through team rumors and decided to sign at the end of 2023. And now I'm scheduled to make my international American football debut on November 2nd in Amsterdam against the Netherlands Women's National Team.
We are affectionately known as the Sealand Seahawks and we couldn't be more excited to be playing our sport in a foreign land with players from all over the UK.
Lack of knowledge about the women's team
Having read this far, you might think you know a fair bit about women's football in the UK, but the truth is there is a lot I haven't mentioned in my comprehensive history of the sport.
There have been so many leagues, teams, victories and defeats over the years, but with very little attention or coverage. While there are only two teams in Scotland (one at the moment), there are many more across the UK and overseas, and the GB team has grown exponentially in the last few years, with talented players flooding the country.
The British women's team are now preparing to take on Finland to secure a chance at silver medal. 2023/24 IFAF Women's European Championship – Just two years after reaching the final They will face the United States for the first time in history at the IFAF World Championships.
Defeat Finland on August 17th Finland and Germany are tied at three teams, both with two wins and two losses, and a tiebreaker will decide the winner.
Considering that all of this happened in just a few years, and that there is still so much rich history to discover, my story of American football should be encouraging to those who want to learn more about their neighborhood sport.
