Julie Wicher     Football         posted      1-28-04

Women's football is still in its embryonic stages, but Julie Wicher has emerged as one of the sport's shining lights. A running back with the Independent Women's Football League's Sacramento Sirens, the 28-year old has put up numbers that are truly staggering.

 Last season, Wicher ran for 1,127 yards in 10 regular season games and totaled 1,919 all-purpose yards (includes receiving and kick returns) to help her team go undefeated. In the postseason, Wicher added 504 rushing yards in three games as the Sirens won the IWFL title in their first year in the league (the Sirens also won a championship in 2002 in another league).

All told, in 13 games, she compiled 1,631 rushing yards, with 26 touchdowns, and 2,581 all-purpose yards with 37 touchdowns.

But Wicher, who works as an editor for a construction industry magazine, doesn't live for the numbers as much as she thrives on the game itself. "I'm not playing to get my name recognized, or anything like that," she says. "Honestly, the bottom line for me is, if I wasn't having fun, I would walk away."

A native of Santa Clara, Cal. who was raised in Walla Walla, Wash., Wicher is a self-professed San Francisco 49'ers fan. As a prep athlete she played soccer, basketball and softball and also ran track. At the University of San Diego she focused on rock climbing and back packing, but when she moved to Sacramento after graduation, she tried to find time to play recreational soccer and softball.

But when she signed up with the Sirens, at the urging of her grandfather, she found that playing tackle football was unlike anything she'd ever experienced before. " There's something in the eye of the person next to you," she said. It's a different look, its a different feeling. It's hard to describe to anybody that hasn't been through it before but I think for men and women both who have played football, they'd understand where that comes from.

"Just the idea of being on an organized team again with a little more competition, being able to travel a little bit, that all was very appealing. And it's special just getting out on the field and meeting the coaches and the other players. With us, its not just a team, it's a family, we get along so well and it's a lot of fun."

It's been an uphill struggle for women's football to make an impact on the American sporting public and the Sacramento market is no different than many others. The Sirens have set up booths at the home games of the NBA's Sacramento Kings and Wicher thinks things are moving in the right direction. " We're the new kids in town," she said, "and it takes awhile to establish some credibility. I think slowly but surely people are coming around to us, it's just a long process."

Wicher thinks that skeptics would be less cynical about her sport if they took a look at it from close range. " I think sometimes people expect girls to go out there and be afraid to break their nails," she said. "This is professional women's tackle football, we're going out there to take people's heads off. I've played for two years and feel like I've aged 10 years.

Compared to the NFL or too other women's sports, money and prestige in women's football are scarce. But Wicher feels she and her teammates her leaving a legacy in their wake. "It's just awesome to know that we are out there," she said, "and setting a precedent and hopefully opening up some doors for young girls who are trying to get into Pop Warner and things like that. I'm just hoping they realize that they can really go after trying to achieve anything they want to."