The Baltimore Nighthawks will play in the Women’s Football Alliance Division II national championship game on July 25 at 6:30 p.m. in Canton, Ohio, marking a franchise first for a team with an unlikely story.
Nighthawks founder and CEO Tanya Bryan is an engineer by trade and only first heard of women’s tackle football when a friend informed her of an opportunity to own a team.
“I love football, but I didn’t realize that women’s tackle existed, which, unfortunately, is still a problem today with our sport,” Bryan said.
The Nighthawks played their regular-season home games at Archbishop Spalding this season. They were members of the Independent Women’s Football League from 2008-2016 before joining the WFA in 2017. In her 18 years of owning the Nighthawks, Bryan’s view of women’s tackle football business has shifted.
“I think most of us when we started, our thought was every woman deserves to play tackle football. It’s not true,” Bryan said. “… This is really about the best athletes if you’re going to move the sport forward in a direction where you are getting the media coverage, you are getting the fan base that you need to make it sustainable.
“The things that have changed is really how we approach the athletes we have, the coaches that we have. What’s the business look like in terms of whose attention are you trying to get? Are you trying to get more fans? Are you trying to get more sponsorships and partnerships so that it’s really seen as more of the business that it is and not just something people do on the weekend?”
Despite football being the nation’s most popular sport for decades, women haven’t had ample opportunities to play. Flag football has grown in prominence in recent years, especially among girls, but progress in women’s tackle football hasn’t reached that level yet.
Most players on the Nighthawks had no prior experience playing football, leaving Bryan and the team to recruit based on athleticism and dedication. Being denied a chance to play football in their younger years has made some players’ passion burn even more.
“It’s intense … because for most of them, football’s that thing they were told they couldn’t do,” Bryan said.
Nighthawks head coach Mike Lynn has been around football for years, serving as head coach at Bowie State and Annapolis Area Christian School. He was also an assistant coach at Morgan State and Maryland.
Lynn says that the team’s biggest strength this year is the camaraderie Bryan has fostered.
“[There’s] very much a family atmosphere in our program,” Lynn said. “Everybody gets to see the great moments that we have when we win and have success … but they’ve all got off-the-field moments that are tough. The concern that [Bryan] provides to them is invaluable.”
That bond has helped power an 8-0 season for Baltimore, which claimed its first WFA Eastern Conference championship in team history by defeating the Cincinnati Cougars at Mount Saint Joseph on July 12. The Nighthawks will face the Salt Lake City Wildcats, who are also 8-0 and tout the highest-scoring offense in Division II (57.8 points per game), in the national championship.
The Wildcats have a unique advantage in the WFA because of their location. Utah is home to the Utah Girls Football League, the country’s first all-girls youth tackle football league. The players in the league range from Grades 3-12.
Some of Utah’s best players have years of tackle football experience, while many of Baltimore’s standouts are relatively new to the sport, according to Lynn.
Salt Lake City features a productive, balanced rushing attack. Conversely, Baltimore possesses one of the most prolific passing offenses in Division II. Nighthawks quarterback Lauren Vetock and wide receivers Sabrina Pellegrini and Tania Bates were named National First-Team All-Americans in the WFA.
Lynn feels comfortable with the team’s offense but said that slowing Division II’s top offense is paramount.
“We feel good about how we doing, but the key is going to be how we perform … defensively,” Lynn said. “Hopefully we’ll be able to stop the run and give ourselves, offensively, more opportunities with the ball.”
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Tanya Bryan