Feature
The Toledo Reign contacted her later that year,
and “that was it.” Because of her athleticism, she
quickly filled a team need at a vital skill position.
“Basically they told me that I needed to play
quarterback,” said Clark, who also has played
running back and receiver and also handles the
Reign’s placekicking and punting duties. “They
said, ‘Are you cool with that?’ I said, ‘I’ll do whatever is best for the team.’ ”
No Passing Fancy
Jacki Clark Balances Her Family
and Teaching to Play in a Women’s
Football League
She has her own surgeon. That’s how much Jacki
Clark ’03 enjoys playing the game of football.
The 39-year-old single mother and teacher is
willing to travel up to four days a week from
her home in Camden, Mich., to Toledo, Ohio,
to compete for Thee Toledo Reign, a women’s
football team. She sacrifices not only her time,
but at times her body, to compete in the usually
male-dominated sport.
In fact, a cortisone shot recently administered
to her right shoulder will hopefully allow her to
throw a football by the next game. “We’ll see if
that helps,” said Clark, who when healthy is the
team’s starting quarterback. “The last three weeks
I haven’t been able to throw a ball. And I don’t
like being one-dimensional.”
That term has never described Clark, a former
standout multi-sport athlete in high school and
in college, including a stint as a runner on the
Siena Heights track and field team. Despite her
full-time commitment to her family and to her
job as a health, business and physical education
teacher at the Pansophia Academy in Coldwater,
Mich., Clark still had the desire to compete on
the playing field. When she learned about the
Women’s Football Alliance three years ago, she
knew had to play.
“Actually, I wanted to play my whole life,” said
Clark, who often tossed the football around as
a child with her brothers in the back yard. “I had
heard about a league eight years ago … but kind
of put it on the back burner. I went to a game
and I asked, ‘How do you get involved?’ ”
22
Reflections Summer ’10
But playing quarterback is more than just being
able to throw a football, Clark said.
“It’s very intense . . . Sometimes
girls bring that added emotion
to the game . . . The other team
is out to cream you.”
“I still had to learn the game,” Clark said, who
was recently named a first team WFA AllAmerican as a punter. “But it’s no different than
learning plays in basketball. … You bring in all of
your stuff from other sports. We haven’t played
football all of our lives so you kind of have to
relate it to what you can to understand.”
Most of the players have differing athletic backgrounds, and the goal is to try to “translate” those
skills to the football field. Clark is in her third
season with the Reign, which she said has a very
young and inexperienced roster.
Jacki Clark ’03
The Toledo entry in the WFA has just one win
this season in a league that includes teams from
Detroit, Grand Rapids, Dayton and Cleveland.
“We have a lot of new players, a lot of rookies
who have never played the game before,” Clark
said. “It’s hard to compete.”
Clark has endured some physical struggles this
season, including the right shoulder injury that
forced her out of the quarterback spot for a time.
She still found a way to contribute – catching
the game-winning touchdown pass earlier this
season in the team’s overtime win against the
Dayton Diamonds. During her playing career
she also has undergone knee surgery and endured other bumps and bruises she said are just
part of the game.
“It’s very intense,” she said of the games, which
are played under NFL rules with high school
modifications. “I think the girls are a little more
scrappy than the guys. Obviously we’re not as
strong, but the intensity is the same, if not more.
Sometimes girls bring that added emotion to the
game the guys just don’t have. The other team is
out to cream you. They’re going to do whatever
it takes. … The girls tend to tackle a little higher
than the guys. Usually after a game my upper
body, especially, is bruised and banged up.”
The team practices in a middle school gym during the winter months and on a church soccer
field when it can go outdoors. During the season, the Reign play their home games at Toledo
Central Catholic High School. Under league
rules, players are not permitted to be paid. And
the players must do their own fundraising to
be able to play.
“We kind of go with what we have donated to
us,” said Clark, who hocks team T-shirts among
other items to raise money and also promotes
the team through online social media channels
like Facebook.
Clark’s niece, Kasey Clark, is a teammate, while
her oldest son, Matt, 16, is in charge of the team’s
game-day operations, which includes running the sideline crew.
She said her two younger sons,
Brantley and Logan (left), are
among her biggest fans. She said
they understand when mom isn’t
around as much during football season, which
runs from April to June.