The Wolfpack: ‘It’s not the lingerie league’

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HIT LIKE A GIRL—Ventura County Wolfpack football player Sonia Deputee, right, wraps up teammate Kimberly Lawson during practice.
Photos by MICHAEL COONS/Acorn Newspapers The Ventura County Wolfpack is vicious.

Players run hard, hit harder and never call it quits.

They leave practice with bruises and black eyes but come back the next day with the same enthusiasm they’ve had since joining the squad earlier this year.

They’re also women.

The Wolfpack, Ventura County’s first 11-on-11 women’s tackle football team, is eager to step onto the field for its April 11 season opener against the Arizona Assassins at Washington High in Phoenix.

“The women play just as hard as the guys,” Wolfpack head coach David Byrd said. “They’re a lot easier to coach than the guys, too.”

Byrd, 56, spent 17 seasons coaching different age groups in the Camarillo Roadrunners youth football league. He serves as Roadrunners vice president.

IN STRIDE—Misty Goodnight catches a pass at Wolfpack practice. Goodnight’s son Riley, 10, will cheer for his mom this season. When he heard of the opportunity to coach a squad from the Women’s Football Alliance, a league with 41 teams spread throughout the United States, he jumped at the chance.

“Women’s football is a great opportunity for girls,” Byrd said. “Women don’t really have that opportunity in high school or college. A lot of them play other sports, but the love for football is just as high for women as it is for men.”

The Ventura Black Widows, the 8-on-8 football team founded in 2008, gave women a chance to suit up and play tackle football. The Wolfpack gives women the opportunity to play with a full lineup.

Assistant coaches Kevin Taylor and Bryon Simpson said the Wolfpack and the WFA, formed in 2007, is in Ventura County to open doors for all female athletes.

TEACHING FUNDAMENTALS—Ventura County Wolfpack defensive coordinator Kevin Taylor, second from left, talks to his players during thefirst practice with pads last weekend at Rio Lindo Park in Oxnard. “The league gives women a chance to play football,” Simpson said. “It’s not the lingerie league. It’s legit football. They can play football in full pads and not have to buy new lingerie.”

Simpson, originally from Kentucky, played football in high school before joining the U.S. Navy. This is the former running back/defensive back’s first season coaching.

Taylor spent time as a football coach at Rio Mesa, Camarillo and St. Bonaventure high schools before joining the Wolfpack’s coaching staff as defensive coordinator. He’s noticed the women’s “raw desire to compete,” but he sees the bigger picture.

BREAKING BARRIERS—Ventura County Wolfpack players gather after a drill. The Wolfpack, the first 11- on-11 women’s tackle football team in the area, plays its first game April 11 against the Arizona Assassins.
Photos by MICHAEL COONS/Acorn Newspapers “I don’t know what the world thinks of it, but gender equality is on the forefront right now,” Taylor said. “This is just another way we’re progressively making a change for the better.”

The 25-women team, which includes players from every corner of Acorn country, is suited up and ready to take to the gridiron.

NOT THE

USUAL SUSPECT

Misty Goodnight, 41, is a natural athlete.

A police officer for 18 years, Goodnight always excelled at sports. She was a star combo guard for the Camarillo basketball team. She also ran track for the Scorpions.

INCOMING—Sonia Deputee of Camarillo suits up at quarterback for the Ventura County Wolfpack women’s tackle football team. When she saw an online posting for a women’s football team, she took it as a sign.

“I always wanted to play football,” the die-hard Chicago Bears fan said. “When I was a kid, I was that tomboy that wanted to play football with all the boys.”

The Thousand Oaks resident tried out for the Wolfpack, earning a spot at running back.

Goodnight said it took time to learn different plays and formations, but she’s slowly under standing the nuances of the sport. She’s also settling in with her new teammates.

“It’s been awesome,” she said. “We’re like a family. We get beat up, but we take care of each other.”

She said her 10-year-old son Riley will surely be on the sidelines when the regular season arrives.

“He’s quite proud of his mom playing football,” Goodnight said with a grin.

A NEW

PASSION

Diamonds are a girl’s best friend.

Tawny Reeger’s diamonds were made of infield dirt.

Reeger, 24, played Little League baseball for five years before making the switch to the softball diamond. She played softball at Simi Valley High and for the So Cal Panthers travel club. She went on to play second base at Delaware State University.

The Simi Valley resident lived for the sport.

“I spent my whole life playing softball and baseball, and I thought I loved that,” she said. “So far, I’ve enjoyed football so much more.”

Reeger, who now manages the Tonka Off-Road Race Team, had only played two-hand touch football before joining the Wolfpack. Her competitiveness kept her coming back.

“Throughout my life I’ve always had something competitive to do. I’m out here with other people that are trying to get better and are trying to win,” she said. “It’s really cool to be a part of something like this and I love it. I wouldn’t come out here five days a week for anything else.”

She expects to see most of her reps at wide receiver and running back.

LIKE FATHER,

LIKE DAUGHTER

Football is in Victoria Anderson Ornsbey’s blood.

“I grew up on the sidelines,” she said.

Her father, Gary Anderson, played football for 36 years. He dominated at defensive tackle at Reseda High before attending UCLA and eventually playing at University of Pacific on a scholarship. Watching her father play for nearly four decades, she always wished she could try playing the sport.

Tina Mallory, a current teammate, told Anderson-Ornsbey about the Wolfpack. The Oak Park resident finally had her chance to be like her dad.

“I came out and fell in love,” she said. “We’re really excited to see what’s going to happen this season. Most people didn’t know there was women’s football, but the league we’re playing in has been around.”

Anderson-Ornsbey, 31, bullies opponents at center and defensive tackle for the squad. The Oak Park High graduate also helps organize practices and equipment orders for the Wolfpack.

Getting the team ready for the regular season hasn’t been easy.

The team’s jerseys weren’t delivered on time. Players didn’t have pads for the first two months of practice due to a shipping snafu. The team still doesn’t have a designated home field.

Anderson-Ornsbey isn’t discouraged.

“I said I’m going to do whatever we have to do to make this happen in the county,” she said, “and that’s what we’ve been trying to do.”

The Wolfpack players now have helmets, pads and cleats. Anderson-Ornsbey’s family will have the chance to see her in action. Her husband, Mike Ornsbey, and daughters, Lilah Ornsbey, Seasun Hill, Sierra Hill and Ragen Anderson, will be cheering from the stands.

ONE OF

THE GUYS

Brittany Pillado just wanted to fit in.

“I wanted to be more accepted by the boys in my family,” the 23-year-old said. “They all played football, so I thought I’d play, too. I ended up falling in love with the sport.”

Pillado is the Wolfpack’s most experienced player.

She spent a season with the Fillmore High football team before transferring to Westlake for her junior year. She joined the Warriors for summer workouts, but said she didn’t quite fit in.

“They’re the ‘Band of Brothers,’ so there was no room for girls,” she said of Westlake. “I was practicing, but I was never going to get a chance to play in a game, so I stopped playing and moved over to wrestling.”

She dominated on the wrestling mat.

Pillado took second place at the CIF-Southern Section 118-pound division as a senior in 2009. After high school, she picked up football again with the Black Widows.

Her favorite part is Hell Week.

“It was like hell,” the Port Hueneme resident said. “A few of us threw up, but we just got back into it. That’s how the game can be. It’ll be tough in the fourth quarter, and Hell Week helped us know what it’ll feel like out there.”

The Wolfpack’s quarterback and middle linebacker said she’s glad she found a new team.

“It’s been amazing,” she said. “These girls are even more amazing. I’m not going anywhere.”

HER TURN

TO PLAY

Tiffany Ruby grew up watching her cousin, Michael Centeno, play football for the Ventura Packers youth squad.

“I was never allowed to play,” Ruby said. “He would just tell me to go to the sideline and cheer him on.”

Ruby, 40, played volleyball and basketball at Camarillo High, but she always wanted to get her shot on the football field. The Wolfpack made her dream come true. She’s eager to suit up at right guard and defensive tackle.

“It’s going to feel good when he can watch me and I’m the one playing,” she said. “Maybe he can wear a skirt, too.”

Ruby, whose daughter Coleen Jeffreys graduated from Camarillo High last year, said she’s developing a close bond with her teammates. Football is now a part of the accountant’s life.

“I just came out to try it and it stuck,” she said. “It’s been awesome. This whole team is like a family. It keeps me grounded.”

Her favorite part about playing football is relieving stress with a little physical contact. She said she never realized how much of a natural she is in the trenches.

“Once you get into it, you learn it’s not that hard,” she said. “No wonder the guys can do it. It’s easy.”

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