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Jeremy Gaston | Sports Editor
The sport of women’s contact football may still be in its
youth, but two athletes from Melvern are at the top of the game.
Mindy White and Rusty Sowers, both of Mission, culminated their
five-year experience in the Independent Women’s Football League
(IWFL) with a national title, playing as part of the Kansas City
Tribe tackle football team that beat the Dallas Diva’s 21-18
June 25 in Austin.
“It was pretty amazing,” said White. “It was certainly
a dream season from start to finish.”
The win was especially sweet for White, who founded the Tribe two
years ago as a player, and remains one of their top defenders. She
led the IWFL in tackles this season, tallying 111 in the team’s
first 10 games.
Teammate Sowers also finished the season as a league leader, recording
11 interceptions (second in the IWFL) and a league-leading 52 receptions
and 856 yards prior to the championship game.
White and Sowers, however, share more that just all-star status
in the league, with a camaraderie dating back to when they were
children in Melvern.
“We’ve played sports all of our lives through junior
high and high school,” Sowers said.
The girls played on successful girls basketball teams at Marais
des Cygnes Valley High School under Head Coach Steve Burkdoll in
the 1990s, ending their high school careers with a runner-up finish
in Class 1A State Championships in 1995.
“In all the years I’ve played, hands down, he was the
best coach we’ve had,” White said. “He definitely
instilled the work ethic in us that has allowed us to be as successful
as we are now.”
Sowers shares White’s respect for Burkdoll.
“He’s still an all-time favorite coach of mine,”
she said. “He’s just a great person and a great coach.
Definitely someone you don’t forget about.”
Both girls went on to play basketball at separate Div. II schools
in Missouri, but met up again on a coed flag football team years
later in Mission, where they were approached by players from the
league.
“They hounded us for a couple months and finally, she and
I decided to go to practice,” Sowers said. “We’ve
been playing ever since.”
The two played on the KC Storm for three years before White founded
the Tribe in 2008. In many ways, playing for the IWFL has been reminiscent
of their high school days.
“We were low in numbers and small in size,” White said.
“We were about the size of the high school football team back
home. We probably would have gone down to eight-man if we could.
“What I really attribute to this team is heart. We had so
much heart, it makes all the difference in the world.”
The size of the team also allowed them to become closer to each
other.
“We grew up in a small little town where we knew everyone,”
White said. “The people that you played with weren’t
just your teammates, they were your family. That’s really
what personified this team. We got along incredibly well, we cared
for one another, and our coaching staff was incredible – it
just makes it that much more meaningful when you get to share it
with people that are like family to you.”
The feeling was mutual for Sowers.
“It was pretty amazing,” she said. “We’ve
played on the team that used to get killed by 50 points, now we’re
the team everybody’s after. It’s a good feeling, and
a good payoff.”
White’s double-duty role as a player and team organizer adds
to her excitement.
“This was something I’d personally worked so hard for,
on and off the field,” White said. “It made it just
doubly powerful, for me. I’d invested so much blood, sweat
and tears into it. It certainly made it a lot more meaningful.”
The Tribe, the first KC team to take the title in the league’s
nine-year history, finished the season at 10-1 after beating the
previously undefeated Divas. The team has come a long way in just
two years, starting from humble beginnings where even having the
right equipment was a problem.
“Last year, when we started the team, our uniforms didn’t
get here in time,” White said. “I called Mr. Burkdoll
the week before our first game as the Tribe. They were going to
let us borrow the brand new high school uniforms, because we didn’t
have any.”
The team had planned to drive through Melvern on the way to Dallas,
however, the girls never got the chance to wear a Trojans jersey
again.
“The uniforms got in the morning before we left, but he was
going to let us borrow them,” White said. “That small
town support just never goes away.”
White and Sowers have retained some of their small-town upbringing,
living and working closely in Mission.
“We live just six blocks apart,” White said. “We
haven’t managed to get too far away from each other.” |
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