![]() Tara Nijhoff, 35, a running back for the Zwolle Blue Jays, discovered the QFL on Facebook. "I was looking for a new challenge in life and I found it." "I randomly came across the QFL online and went to one of the tryouts with a friend," Desi Wolf, a linebacker for the 0'30 Utrecht Wolverines and an avid surfer, recalls. ![]() Some women began their time in the QFL as rookies who discovered the league on social media and who had to learn the game from scratch. Julia Gunther Together with her teammates, Dalila Andrade, 34, a defensive end for the Rotterdam Ravens (center foreground), looks on as the Ravens' offense plays against the Eindhoven Valkyries in Rotterdam, Netherlands, in October 2021. So at 18, she joined the Amsterdam Cats - the first of six teams in the now-defunct QFL, the only female American football league in the Netherlands. Like many of the QFL's athletes, Kelly refused to accept that American football was a "man's sport." "Obviously, women can play - and it's important that we play," she says. ![]() In addition to the rush, she found football to be a great outlet for the frustrated energy that always seemed to be ready to burst out of her. Kelly began playing flag football with boys and, when she was 16, she joined a male American football team in Lelystad, her hometown. The other five teams had to use soccer or other sports fields to practice on. At the time, the Cats were the only QFL team who had access to dedicated American football facilities - the field belonging to the Crusaders, Amsterdam's male American football team. Julia Gunther Lisa Niekoop, 31, a tight end for the Rotterdam Ravens, poses for a photo in Rotterdam, Netherlands, in October 2020. Not interested in competing with men, Muluneh decided that if there was no league for women like her to join, she would start one. The Queens Football League, founded by Kanessa Muluneh in 2017, was created in response to that lack of opportunity. The only option for women like Kelly was to join a men's team, something that put many potential female players off. ![]() Although there'd been a men's league in the country since the mid-'80s, there were no women's teams and no dedicated league. have active leagues and, by 2016, there were over 200 teams in Europe alone. Women's American football has had a tumultuous history in the United States, but women have been actively involved in the sport since the late 1880s.įor the past few decades, the sport has been quietly growing abroad too.Ĭanada, Mexico and Australia - all countries with close cultural ties to the U.S. Bottom right: Two Zwolle Blue Jays players practice during a training session. Bottom left: Kelly de Waard, the quarterback for the Amsterdam Cats, runs with the ball during a rain-soaked training session in Amsterdam on Sept. Julia Gunther Top: The Hague Black Scorpions train in The Hague, Netherlands, in September 2020. ![]()
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