FAIRFIELD, Calif. (KGO) — The Bay Area is welcoming another women’s professional sports team as the Golden State Storm begins its inaugural season in the Women’s National Football Conference.
The Storm joins recent additions to the Bay Area’s women’s professional sports scene, including Bay FC in 2024 and the Golden State Valkyries in 2025.
It is the 16th team to join the WNFC, the Women’s National Football Conference, which is in its seventh year. The league features women’s tackle football, a sport not typically available to women.
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Brandi Ransom, a wide receiver for the Storm, commutes two hours several evenings a week from her job as a research scientist at IBM in San Jose to the team’s practice field in Fairfield.
She’s used to people looking surprised when she says she plays tackle football.
“You have to repeat it a few times, usually because they’re like, oh, flag football. And you’re like, no, tackle football. And they’re like, tackle football; they let women play tackle football? And I’m like, they do and we’re good at it,” Ransom said.
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Because there are no high school or college women’s tackle football programs, players come from a variety of athletic backgrounds. Some have played rugby, soccer or softball.
Ransom ran track in college.
Linebacker Paulina Lopez has traveled from Mexico for the past three years to play in the WNFC.
She began playing football at age 15 after asking to join her younger brother’s team in Zacatecas, Mexico.
“They say, okay, if you can last one week, we’re going to let you play football. So look at me now, chasing my dreams. And I’m still here,” Lopez said.
She described herself as “very physical,” “very fast,” and able to read plays well.
The head coach, Dallas Hartwell, said Golden State has a mix of players who have been on other teams and players who are playing tackle football for the first time.
As a high school football coach, he’s used to teaching the basics of the game.
“Coaching high school football, you’d be surprised how many kids come in as freshmen who have never played tackle football. You want to make sure everybody’s ready to hit, everybody’s ready to block, everybody’s ready to play a live football game,” explained Hartwell.
Sierra Le Grande is one of those rookies in the strictest sense. She watched plenty of football with her family but never played the game before.
“I have five brothers; my dad’s a wrestler, so that aggression is built into me. I just have a lot of physicality in me,” said Le Grande, who is studying kinesiology at San Joaquin Delta College.
Still, she admits she’s a little nervous ahead of the team’s first game on Saturday, but she expects that to go away once the game starts.
“As you get that first hit, that first tackle, it’s not as bad,” said Le Grande.
Ransom said playing rugby prepared her for the hits and tackles, but only up to a certain point.
“In rugby, you don’t wear pads and I will say getting hit by a helmet does hurt worse than getting it by a body, but you do get hit a lot less often than you do in rugby,” said Ransom.
The Golden State Storm will play their home games at Laney College in Oakland.
Kick off for Saturday’s inaugural game is 7:00 p.m.
The Storm joins recent additions to the Bay Area’s women’s professional sports scene, including Bay FC in 2024 and the Golden State Valkyries in 2025.
The WNFC is still growing. It has a six-game season. The Storm’s other home games are April 4 and May 2, with away games in San Diego, Los Angeles and Seattle.
The Storm also has a flag football team, but they only play in tournaments for now.
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