Moroccan and Green Bay East girls football teams brought high energy to the Titletown football field despite the heat.
Two pioneering football teams faced off Aug. 7 on the Titletown football field in Ashwaubenon.
On one side, We Can Morocco in white jerseys with red highlights, decidedly outnumbered but game to play. On the other side, Green Bay East High School in dark red jerseys and black numbers, a newly formed team, but already a tournament champion.
What was pioneering about We Can Morocco can well be imagined: Girls from North Africa playing American football. But much the same could be said for the Red Devils, perhaps the first girls football team in Green Bay.
"I feel like I'm back home for real," said Fouzia Madhouni, standing on the Titletown football field. "I'm glad to share the experience with my girls. We are meeting new people and a new culture."
Madhouni is the founder of We Can Morocco, which is supported by the NFL and the Packers. The NFL is doing its best to build interest in football around the world, in this case flag football, and the Packers, who mentored Madhouni three years ago. The team still provides her program with equipment, which she shares with other teams to keep the momentum going.
Having returned to Morocco and bragged about her time in Green Bay, Madhouni decided it was time to come back and bring some of her players with her. "I pitched it to the Packers and they were hyped about it," she said.
The Packers, in turn, enlisted the East High team, which was formed just before the third annual Packers Girls Flag Open in June, which they won.
The Moroccan girls, all six of them, were tested by the 87-degree heat and being outnumbered nearly 2-to-1. They had hoped to bring more players to Green Bay than they did, but it was an expensive trip and some of the girls were unable to get visas. So six it was, and without their quarterback, no less.
Led by quarterback Margarita Montez, whose ability to throw on-the-mark 30-yard touchdown passes propelled the American team, East won 32-8, not that the score was so important. Playing and being seen was.
East was coached by Kominiko Sila, who also is head coach of the East boys football program. He said East might have the first high school girls flag football team in Green Bay, and after their victory in the Packers tournament in June, girls from other local high schools have been calling.
On her first trip to Green Bay, Madhouni participated in the Global Sports Mentoring Program, which was supported by the U.S. State Department, the NFL, the Center for Sport, Peace and Society at the University of Tennessee, and espnW. Launched in 2012 by the State Department, the program consisted of two initiatives, the Empower Women through Sports program, which focused on advancing gender equality, and the Sport for Community program, which addressed disability rights.
Madhouni said the NFL dispatched players to Morocco to help teach American football, including former Packers player Ha Ha Clinton-Dix.
The program aimed to empower women through sports by leveraging the power of mentoring and cultural exchange. The five-week, immersive-mentorship experience focused on empowering participants to serve their local communities by increasing access to participation in sports.
With We Can Morocco, Madhouni did so. We Can has more than 200 participants from ages 18 to 30 in its programs.
"I want to impact people to impact people," Madhouni said. "Making an impact is like a train. It's making people get on board with you."
On Aug. 8, the Packers will host a free high school girls flag football camp at the Titletown Football Field, with sessions from 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 4 p.m.
Contact Richard Ryman at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @RichRymanPG, on Instagram at @rrymanPG or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/RichardRymanPG.
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Moroccan, Green Bay East girls' football teams square off at Titletown
Category: Football
