Catherine Churchill Shows Some Force
Offensive Lineman Catherine Churchill plays for the Oklahoma City Lady Force, a women’s football team. They started seven years ago in the minor league. The year before last was the team's first time competing in the Women’s Football Alliance and the first year Churchill played.
Churchill said they went to championships last year and are now in Division II.
“We've traveled to New Mexico, we've traveled to Arizona, and pretty much anywhere the WFA sends us,” she said. “And then at the end of the year we all go, whoever wins the championships that they have, the American or the National, will go to Canton, Ohio, and play at the championship arena.”
Churchill said this would be her third year playing.
“I've always had a thing for football,” she said. “I never played it, I just always watched it, was always into it. I was always the band kid, but I was also on the sideline and cheer. So, I was just there, watched it, was always into it.”
Churchill said that when she went to college, her dad gave her information during COVID about a women’s football team.
“We had one in Lawton, but they didn't get up off the ground fast enough and they didn't have enough players,” she said. “So, I never really got to see it. And then so the following year I came out and they're like, ‘Oh yeah, just come check us out. We'll walk you through stuff and then you get to meet everybody.’ But when I went up there, I didn't know I was going to be practicing for the first time. And I haven't done gym time, nothing. I was out of shape. I was tired as soon as I got to the car. Apparently, I fell asleep while my fiancé drove us home.But I mean, I've been stuck with it since that day and I just kept coming back for more and more. And whenever I got on the field for the first time, it was like a whole entire different person was there. And it became more of a, almost a healthy addiction.”
Churchill said that meeting other people who enjoy the sport is essential.
“Our ultimate goal is to make it to where girls don't have to be afraid to do sports that guys are mainly dominant in,” she said. “We want everybody to enjoy something and we want it to be on a professional level like the NFL. We want girls to have that dream and to be able to live it. So, we don't mind being a stepping stone for our girls to get there.”
Churchill is also in her last year of football due to medical reasons.
“I'm at the point now where I'm trying to figure out my goal in the culture,” she said. “Because more than ever, me and my family are getting more involved in our culture and figuring out where our family is coming from and who we're relating to and stuff like that. And it's becoming more of a, I need to do this aspect.”
Churchill is currently getting into the language classes and what bands they belong to.
“Some of my favorite things is, of course, the dancing aspect of it. In college I got to be the native princess at SWOSU,” she said. “So, we kind of indulged then and then I got into dancing and then I was here and there at powwows. That's probably my favorite thing because that's something I get to share with my niece. And she likes going out there. She'll have her powwow bag packed with her snacks and then we'll go sit out there all day and just dance and just kind of be a big family out there.”
Churchill said she enjoys cultural night events with family, including at the Comanche Academy Charter School.
“I kind of enjoy it because my great-grandma, she made everybody's stuff,” she said. “And now that we don't have her anymore, it's kind of like, ‘Well, where do we pick up at?’ ‘How do we do this?’ ‘How do we do that?’ ‘How do we get everybody's stuff to where they got to be?’ Because my uncle dances, too, and he has special needs. So, of course, he doesn't know how to make his stuff so it kind of falls into mine and my mom's lot. Like, where do we start and all this stuff? So, I picked up sewing and I've gotten the hang of it. I'm still tweaking things out, but I'm getting the hang of it. I've done three ribbon skirts and I kind of need to stop.”
Churchill said being on the team was a struggle due to player dynamics in the beginning.
“It's definitely a struggle at first because we have new players, returning players, and the new players always know how the old players are,” she said. “And they haven't gotten that, like, ‘Oh, hey, she's just being her.’ So, we do a lot of training. We do Saturdays, Sundays, and then if you live up in the city, they do Tuesdays and Thursdays. But there's three other girls that live down here, so we'll go meet up somewhere during the week when we all have time and then we'll go do something.”
Last year was hard for Churchill.
“Because I was the only one from Lawton, so, like, I was having to drive by myself because other people, they may have came from Lawton, but they had family and stuff, people they could stay with in the city,” she said. “And with me having my niece and nephew at home and then having all of our animals, it's not really an option for me to stay up in the city. I have to get home and make sure everybody's okay. So it was, it's still kind of hard, but it's not as hard as it was last year.”
Churchill enjoys the fact that she has a second family.
“Like, you feel like you have a second family and you've been a part of them even though you just met some of them a couple months ago,” she said. “And it doesn't matter…what you're going through at home or what you're going through just in life in general. You always have them to rely on. It might take them a minute or two to…respond back to you, but, I mean, if you need someone to talk to or just someone to be there, you have a whole entire football team just waiting for you.”
OKC Lady Force has their full schedule at OKCLadyForce.com.
