Widows in the making
Local women try out for ventura County's first female full-contact football team
By Michael Sullivan 07/17/2008
Although many people were rolling over in bed on Saturday morning, July 12, six women — some of them single mothers — were on a mission. Instead of sleeping in and having a lazy morning as many Americans prefer, these women were trying out for Ventura’s first female full-contact football league, the Black Widows.
This was the second time Ahmad Newton, owner of the Ventura team for the National Women’s Football Association, held a tryout but, unlike the first in April, this time women showed up. One of them, Aretha Vines, 40, of Oxnard even skipped work to get there.
“I wanted to do this,” said Vines, who used to be on a woman’s traveling softball team and missed playing team sports. “I just thought, ‘What can I do to go to this?’ ”
Vines was not alone in her desire to join the team. These women all had different reasons for wanting to join.
“Women need to get out aggression, too!” said Vicky Ortega, 34.
“I love football and wished there was a team sport,” said Jessica “The Mouth” Johnson, 33, of Ventura, who earned her nickname because of her zealous team spirit.
“I always wanted to play,” said Julia Aranda, 44. “My dad taught me how to play when I was growing up, but we only played those powder puff games in high school. I wanted to play ‘real’ football.”
Aranda said her children are grown up and she was looking for something to fill her time. She decided joining the league would help keep her busy.
And Sylvia Hurtado, 41, spent the last week trying to recruit other women from her work for an optometrist to attend the tryout. She told her colleague Vines, but it appeared Vines didn’t need much convincing.
Regina Alvarado, 34, of Oxnard had even considered commuting to join a team.
“I heard about the L.A. Amazons two or three years ago and thought it was really neat that they do it for women, but [it was] too far to drive out for that,” Alvarado said. “When I heard they were forming a team here, I thought, ‘I am on it. It is my opportunity to do it.’ Women don’t get a lot of chances to play organized sports.”
And so, the Black Widows has officially been formed.
But Newton, who came up with the team’s name because of the large population of the spider in Ventura, and the rest of the women are far from playing professionally in the league.
Newton needs a minimum of 35 women to compete. So far, only six women have showed up for two tryouts and committed to the team.
After seeing these women on the field giving their all with their coach, Mike Otani, 28, a former women’s football coach from San Luis Obispo, Newton says he is determined to go out and recruit more women for the team.
“I am surprised and thrilled there is a market in Ventura, and there are women who do want to play,” Newton said.
Newton plans on doing a big recruitment push, including leaving fliers in multiple gyms, community colleges and karate studios across the county.
Newton said there is no age discrimination in the league, and he knows of at least one woman in the league who is in her late 40s. With a waiver from their parents, minors can also join. Newton invites everyone out to play, whether single, in a relationship, married or even widowed.
Right now, the trial fee is $55, and other fees may apply depending on whether the team purchases their own equipment and what other provisions the team may need.
But the National Women’s Football Association didn’t just spring up this year. The association has been around since the turn of the millennium, with 35 teams across the country. The Black Widows are one of seven expansion teams.
Newton said the sport is growing, with thousands of women joining in the aggressive sport each year.
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