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Ky.
Karma encourages women
to reach goals via football
By
Helen E. McKinney
Contributing Writer
(June 2007) – If someone had told Melissa
Ward when she was a young girl growing up in Indianapolis
that she would one day be a member of a professional women’s
football team, she would have laughed in their face.
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Photo
provided
Melissa
Ward is the offensive tackle for
the Kentucky Karma football team.
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Now at 38, Ward plays offensive tackle for the
Kentucky Karma football team. Kentucky Karma is a team in
the National Women’s Football Association and plays games
within the Midwest region. Home games are played at 7 p.m.
at Holy Cross High School Alumni Field.
Ward always had a keen interest in physical activity, but
there weren’t many sports opportunities other than gymnastics,
dance and cheerleading when she was younger. During her sophomore
year of high school, Ward moved to New Jersey, where she found
more sports options at her new school.
This school was “a little more progressive with its women’s
sports programs,” said Ward. “I played basketball
and threw the discus and shot put for the track team.”
Due to her experience on the track team, she became interested
in running and weightlifting, which she continued to pursue
in college.
Ward earned an Air Force ROTC scholarship and was required
to take physical training on a weekly basis. She majored in
political science and criminal justice at Indiana University
in Bloomington, and currently serves as the executive director
for the Arts Association of Oldham County.
Ward said that being a member of Kentucky Karma is “a
pretty big commitment.” She attends practice from 6:30
p.m. to 8:30 p.m. every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, with
games on Saturday.
Jay Torsch, Kentucky Karma coach, introduced Ward to the concept
of joining a professional women’s football team. Torsch,
a board member and coach for the Oldham County Youth Football
League, said “I thought she might be interested after
having talked with her about her son playing youth league
football, so I suggested she try out.”
Encouraged by Torsch, Ward made the team in December 2006.
“I didn’t realize there was a professional women’s
football team anywhere, let alone right outside of Oldham
County!”
Thomas Hawkins Sr., is co-head coach and owner of Kentucky
Karma. Playing on the football team is “a passion for
most of them. It’s something they’ve always wanted
to do.”
Hawkins, a former coach for the Oldham County School System,
said the football franchise came to Oldham County in 2004.
A staff was created to handle the franchise, but when changes
were later made in the coaching staff, he was approached to
become head coach.
He resisted at first, but decided it was an “opportunity
to take a program and build on it.” It is an on-going
process he said, and he hopes to build the franchise as good
as any in the NWFA and build a team that is competitive enough
to strive for the championship each year.
About 96 percent of the players are women who have played
other sports, said Hawkins. He said Ward is a dedicated player
with a desire to “do things right.”
Ward said that being a part of Kentucky Karma fulfilled a
dream for her “to do something people said couldn’t
be done. I have always wanted to do things people said women
shouldn’t or simply aren’t able to do, and to prove
them wrong.”
But it’s not an easy task for any woman to keep up with
the practice schedule required of the team. Most women juggle
children, after school events, jobs and many other priorities
that make it difficult for them to devote time to something
they want to do and not feel guilty about it.
Ward compares herself to a single working mom because her
husband works out of town and doesn’t have to juggle
her hectic schedule. Every now and then a game might be sacrificed
because of a sick child, board meeting for work or her children’s
games, but Ward says she always gives 100 percent of herself
to the team when possible.
“Because we have to sacrifice more to make it to this
level of achievement,” Ward ventured to say that women
are even more competitive than men who play football. They
also have to endure a wide spectrum of remarks that are made
quite often.
“Most of the people I have talked to have been first
amazed, then very supportive and interested in the League,”
she said. However, there are still those individuals who retain
a stereotypical idea of what women should and should not do.
“Physically, I would say that a woman’s physical
stature is both an advantage and hindrance in this sport,”
said Ward, who is 5-foot-9. While the team’s smaller,
quicker running backs could run rings around the men, Ward
said she definitely wouldn’t want to be up against some
of the NFL’s finest D-Linemen.
In addition to playing offensive tackle, Ward has also been
trained as a defensive guard. Torsch said that while “we
have different goals for offense and defense, our team goals
are the same as any other football team. Get better, be competitive,
win.”
But Ward has learned that football “is only partly physical.
There is a huge mental component to football that I didn’t
know existed until I began to play,” said Ward.
She believes women excel at such tactics as learning the plays
and calls, how to read the opponent’s moves, and how
to improvise at a moment’s notice. To be a member of
Kentucky Karma, Torsch believes women need to be “athletic,
competitive, dependable, honest, have good sportsmanship and
good character.” All the same qualities that Ward has.
• For more information, visit: www.kentuckykarma.com.
Three games are scheduled in June before the playoffs start
June 23.
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