Tulsa has a professional women’s football team.
Traditionally speaking, most contact sports have been dominated by men. There are very few sports at the professional level as a whole, but with the exception of ice hockey, contact sports for women are few and far between.
Then you come across the Tulsa Threat, a professional women’s tackle football team. The squad is comprised of 28 ladies, thirteen of them veteran players, who play their home games at the football stadium on the Webster High School campus. The squad has been around for five years playing initially as the Tulsa Eagles in the Women’s Football Alliance and this season they debuted in the Independent Women’s Football League as the Tulsa Threat.
The Threat’s inaugural season has been a rough one thus far. As of this writing the team is 1-2 on the season, with the team nabbing their first win in the IWFL last Saturday. The Threat defeated the San Antonio Regulators in a surprisingly tight game 28-20. They began their season in Austin on April 16 and hosted Houston on April 23rd, with both contests resulting in rather lopsided losses.
On Saturday night the Threat found a rhythm with a run-heavy offense and several key defensive stops in the final two quarters to hold on for the win. They will be in action again this Saturday night at Webster taking on the Woodland Wildcats. The Threat play in the Central Conference of the IWFL and as part of that conference they play regional opponents located in Texas and Colorado.
In all, the IWFL has over 30 teams nationwide and each team plays a 9-week regular season schedule followed by playoffs and a two game championship weekend.
Miranda Munson
Getting that crucial first win is a big step for any team in any sport, and defeating San Antonio was a positive step in what Threat General Manager Mindy Goodman called “a rebuilding year” for her team. She noted that the team plays for themselves as the team’s players are the club owners, and each player devotes a considerable amount of time and money to play for the love of the game. The IWFL lends their support as not only a platform for the ladies to compete, but as a vehicle to develop the sport for women nationwide.
Goodman has big plans for the Threat as she wants them to become a part of the Tulsa community to help bring the sport in line with the other professional sports teams in the region. Long range plans include camps and clinics in September and a number of fundraisersin the offseason leading up to next season beginning in April 2017.
There’s plenty of action left this season for fans in Tulsa to enjoy. Three games remain on the home side of the Threat schedule, including the game this weekend against Woodland the Threat will host Austin on May 21st and Austin on May 21st. After two games on the road and a bye week, the team hopes to enter the IWFL post season tournament enroute to a championship in Charlotte, North Carolina on the weekend of July 21st.
Tickets for upcoming Threat games can be purchased at the gate for $8 each and from any Threat player for $5. In addition to the action on the field the Threat has a 50-50 drawing at the half and a t-shirt giveaway at the end of each quarter. Follow the team on Facebook at facebook.com/TulsaWTF and the league at iwflsports.com.
The next home game is this Saturday night May 7th at Webster High School football stadium when the Threat face Woodland. Kickoff is slated for 7pm.