Wolfpack to invade IGF

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This article was published 23/06/2015 (3754 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg is set to host a football championship, and it’s got nothing to do with the Grey Cup.

The Winnipeg Wolfpack will host the 2015 Western Women’s Canadian Football League Championship on Sat., July 4 at 2 p.m. at Investors Group Field.

“Every team is able to put in a bid for it. This year being the Year of Sport in Manitoba and also having the Grey Cup in Winnipeg and beautiful IGF Field we decided it was our year to bring it to the Prairies,” said Adrienne Dudek, Wolfpack founder and left guard.

“It’s going to be an excellent celebration. Everybody from the announcers to the stick crews will be volunteers so there’s lots of community involvement and just great football played at a great field. We want people to come out and if you’re skeptical (of women’s tackle football) we’ll have booths there talking about our program.”

Established in 2011 as part of the North Winnipeg Nomads Football Club, the women’s tackle football team plays in the WWCFL’s Prairie Conference, taking on the Regina Riot, the Saskatoon Valkyries and crosstown rivals the Manitoba Fearless in regular season action.

The league’s Western Conference is composed of the Calgary Rage, the Edmonton Storm and the Lethbridge Steel.

The Wolfpack, which plays its home games at Markus Howell Field at the Old
Exhibition Grounds, sported a record of two wins and two losses this regular season, taking on the Valkyries in the Prairie Conference semifinals at Saskatoon Minor Football Field on June 21. The Wolfpack lost to the WWCFL reigning champions by a score of 66-7.

Linebacker Reanne Cairns is a fourth-year Wolfpack player. The 24-year-old said she came to the sport from touch football.

“I was a little aggressive for touch football and our quarterback (Amy Mohr) came out and said ‘That girl needs to play tackle.’ I didn’t even know it existed,” Cairns said.

Cheyann Boisvert is a rookie fullback with the Wolfpack. Like Cairns, the 22-year-old came to tackle the touch route and said she was attracted to the sport because of its openness to all skill levels and ages. WWCFL players are aged 16 and up, with the oldest player on the Wolfpack, Mohr, throwing touchdown passes at age 47.

“I wanted to play hockey my whole life and never really got around to it and I felt like it was too late for me to start because all the hockey girls are already proficient in their sport,” Boisvert said. “I joined the Wolfpack with no experience and I feel like I was welcomed with open arms. And my skills are improving drastically.”

You don’t have to be experienced to join the Wolfpack, but experience you will get.

“I think a lot of people think it’s a beer league,” Cairns said. “I actually had some co-workers come to a game recently and afterwards they came to me and said ‘We knew you took your sport really seriously, but we had no idea how intense this league was.’”

Tickets for the WWCFL championship are $10 at the door. For more information on the Wolfpack, go to www.winnipegwolfpack.com