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Tuesday, May 30, 2000
The eye of
the Storm
Softball catcher-turned quarterback
By Brandon Lee
Heather Stone and her tackle football
teammates just love to play the game
Special to the Star-BulletinShe says that her favorite quarterback is Drew Bledsoe of the New England Patriots.
With the No. 7 emblazoned on her Hawaiian Storm jersey, her sturdy build, her rifle arm and running ability, she looks and plays more like John Elway.
Her name is Heather Stone, and she is the woman under center for the Storm, one of the teams in a new and loosely formed women's tackle football league in Hawaii.
While women's tackle football leagues have sprung up and been successful on the mainland, the sport is struggling to get a foothold in the islands.
There have been only two official games in the past six months -- both blowout victories by the Storm -- and the league and its teams are struggling for funding and sponsorship.
Despite the fact that these women play not for money, but for the adrenaline rush of the contact and pride, there is absolutely no denying that many have sound and sometimes impressive football skills.
The hitting gets vicious, even compared with the men's game, and spectacular running and pass plays are not uncommon.Stone, a former professional softball catcher from Newport, N.H., is one of the standouts in the sport locally.
She has the familiar hitch step before the ball is snapped, she can throw a tight post pass or the touch-fade, and she is fearless running the option or keeping the ball herself on draw plays. Though she doesn't typically do so in games, she can throw the ball 50 yards downfield without much difficulty.
"Heather is just a pure athlete," said Storm head coach Ben Morn.
"Physically she is strong and can take a lot of pain, and she is improving mentally. She has gone from a quarterback who used to get frustrated, to one who now controls the offense."
Dictating the offensive flow is exactly what Stone did in the Storm's last game earlier this month, a 44-0 shellacking of the Hawaii Thunder. Stone showed her versatility and toughness throughout, throwing for two scores and rushing for two more touchdowns. She was successful on two 2-point conversions, and she got right back to her feet after every hit she absorbed.
"I like to pass, but I also like to run the option and include everybody in the offense," Stone said.
Though Stone and her teammates will likely take a six-month break before suiting up for another game, they routinely practice three times a week. She is a working professional, just like most of the other women in the league. Stone is employed as a counselor with Hale Kipa Youth Services and is also assistant softball coach at Brigham Young University-Hawaii.
"I finally know why guys get so excited to play football," Stone said of her enthusiasm for the game. "I have a whole new respect for them. It's so much more intense than the other sports I played -- getting hit and not knowing when you're going to get hit -- I give the guys a lot of credit."
Though the league is struggling for viability, Morn and Stone see a future for women's tackle football in Hawaii. The decent-sized crowd at Kaiser Field for the last game attested to public interest, and with the sometimes loud and raucous cheering that went on, it appeared that many of these fans would come back for more.
"I think that if we get the sponsorship so that we can go and compete with the mainland teams, the league will continue to develop," Stone said. "Money will always be a concern; it's the reason we don't have a professional men's team here."
