Women play in Louisville football leauge

ELIZABETHTOWN, Ky. - Lisa Santiago is a basketball player. She normally plays in a league at Fort Knox, but was upset when it was canceled this year.
She found an alternative, though, that may raise some eyebrows.
Santiago is now a football player. She doesn't get paid yet, but that day will come soon enough, she said. Just finding a team and putting on a helmet was a start.
Santiago said her friends saw an ad for tryouts.
"I went out just to see," she said. "I didn't know they had even been playing. I tried out - did a few drills." - NFL Football -
Santiago is now a member of the National Women's Football Association's Kentucky Karma. The team, whose jerseys are light blue and purple, play home games at North Oldham High School in Goshen, north of Louisville. More than 60 women are on the roster.
The league is five years old, and according to Elizabethtown resident and receivers coach Rob Golsby, the rules are the same as regular football.
"Everything is pretty much the same," he said. "It's similar to the NFL."
There are 37 teams overall, and in their first full season, the Karma finished with a 5-3 record, tied for seventh place in their division and one win away from the playoffs.
"The whole season went so fast," said Central Hardin High School graduate Valerie Skillman. "It was such a new experience."
Skillman, who just graduated from Spalding University and is looking forward to medical school next year, is no stranger to athletics. She played soccer for St. Catharine College and Spalding, and has two stepbrothers she used to play football with in the back yard.
She has wanted to play football since she was four, she said. She got her chance this year, starting at center. Still, football was an adjustment from her days on the soccer field.
"I had to try to not avoid contact," she said. - NFL Football -
The physicality was an adjustment for Santiago, an outside linebacker, as well.
"The first day I hit I couldn't go to work the next day," she said. "I was laying on the bed with the phone by my head. It got easier after that. My body had to get used to being jarred like that."
Santiago has four sons and four brothers, so she was no stranger to some of the finer points of the game. She soon caught on to the rough play. - NFL Football -
"I'm going to play again," she said. "It just does something to you. You feel like you have power. I'm a hitter. I do the hitting. Defense is different. Offense can only push. It's an adrenaline rush."
Skillman said the games had other benefits, especially during the school year.
"It was a release from the stress of school," she said. She plans to play next year if she has time.
The team has received a good response from the community. Some teams currently pay their players; for the Karma, they must all find their own sponsors. Her residence hall at school sponsored Skillman. She was impressed with the support not only from school, but from the fans. - NFL Football -
"It really surprised me," she said. "I pulled up (before a game), and the crowd was already there. People were in the parking lot tailgating. I was pretty overwhelmed."
Tryouts start again in October, and Golsby, for one, is looking forward to them. The women learned the game this year through hard work, he said, and it is definitely a league worth watching.
"It grew into them," he said. "They had a desire to do it. They had the will to come out every practice, three times a week and games on Saturday night. Once they put the helmets on and everything you won't even recognize them as women." - NFL Football -

BRIAN T. KEHL
Associated Press