The Fort McKay Northern Spirits football team made Canadian history on May 1, 2022, becoming the first on-reserve all-girls football team in Canada to play a regular-season game.
Taking on the Wetaskiwin Warriors, the Northern Spirits fell behind early 14-0.
“The girls fought hard, we came back, we didn’t get down on ourselves,” said Head Coach Dylan Elias.
“I think that was the biggest thing I learned from this game is that this is a team that will keep fighting, cause when you go down 14-0 and then you fight back to tie it up 14-14, that just showed me the heart and spirit of the team.”
The Warriors would pull away in the second half winning the game 55-20.
Despite the score, Linebacker Alicia Gladue says the game was still fun.
“It reminded me when I first started playing back in 2019, brought me back to when this started.”
Racking up a handful of tackles and sacks, Gladue also returned a kickoff over 70 yards for her first-ever touchdown.
The Northern Spirits will travel down to Edmonton this week to take on St. Albert Saturday, May 7 at 4:45 at Millwoods Turf.
When asked about the expectations for the upcoming game, Elias’ message was simple.
“There’s one expectation, win.”