Women’s team preparing for game in Mexico
Mar 08, 2017 by Iain Colpitts Mississauga News
The Mississauga Indoor Football Association has formed a women’s tackle team that is preparing for a match against the LEXFA all-stars in Cancun this spring. – Supplied photo
Like a lot of women in her shoes, Monica Chica gets a lot of surprised reactions when she tells people she plays tackle football.
She’s met with even more shock when they hear she’s a grandmother too.
“First of all, they don’t believe I’m a grandmother because apparently I don’t look like it,” said Chica, a 45-year-old personal trainer.
“But then they say it’s amazing that I’m doing that and then they want to do it. I tell them they should go for it because it’s a good experience.”
Many more women in their late 30s or early 40s play football with her thanks to the women’s tackle team at the Mississauga Indoor Football Association (MIFA).
It was started up by MIFA founder and program co-ordinator Liston Bates last year with the hopes of empowering women.
Chica has definitely seen results in that regard so far.
“I’m not as strong as the other ladies, but I enjoy the soreness in my body the day after playing,” she said. “It gives me confidence and makes me feel young again.”
The women practice out of the United Soccer Centre on Wolfedale Road. It’s also home to various other football and personal training programs MIFA has offered since 2009.
Many women who play got involved because they had children play football with MIFA and the moms gained interest themselves just through watching on the sidelines.
“Their kids are moving on to university, I’m no longer their coach, but the women feel comfortable since MIFA has taken care of their family for the past decade,” said Bates, who also coaches the women along with Mike Berisic. “Now there’s an option for them to be part of it.”
While it is mostly moms who play, Bates has recruited other participants through his endeavours as a personal trainer.
However, he laughs as he recalls the one time he was able to sell a woman on the program at a Chinese restaurant.
“It was about 3 o’clock in the morning (when I told her about MIFA) and she smiled as if to say ‘Yeah right’,” he recalled.
“I told her I wanted her to come meet me at Erindale Field that day at 1 o’clock … She showed up and not only was she a great tackle football player on the women’s team, but she plays in my coed flag league.”
Last year, MIFA put together a men’s all-star team to take on LEXFA, a similar program from Mexico in a series of games in Cancun and Oakville last year.
They’ll engage in that series again this year, with the women’s teams set to face each other as well.
That’s an important step for the Mississauga women, since there aren’t any teams they can play against in the surrounding area.
“Men’s football is pretty popular all over the world and women’s football isn’t,” said team member Leah Bates, Liston’s sister-in-law. “We’re playing against a team they’ve put together (in Mexico) where women’s football has a huge league there. It’s really exciting.”