Bucknell University Athletics
Former Bucknell Basketball Captain Enjoys Tackling Something New
4/18/2003 8:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
April 18, 2003
NEW YORK, N.Y. - There was something missing in Monique LeBlanc's life. Fresh out of college with a promising job at Prudential Financial in New York City, LeBlanc longed for the competition and camaraderie of her Division I basketball-playing days at Bucknell.
The WNBA was shooting too high and she didn't want to settle for a pick-up basketball team.
On a whim, she decided to give football a try.
"I was at a little league football game in my town. There was one girl playing on the all-boys team. I thought, 'Oh wow, that's so cool.' And it got me thinking," LeBlanc said.
She once had seen a member of New York's Independent Women's Football League's team, the Sharks, on a talk show, so she searched the Internet and found they were holding tryouts.
Kathy Fedorjaka, LeBlanc's coach at Bucknell, said, "It wasn't a complete shock. ... Doing something off the cuff, that's Mo."
Two rounds of cuts later, she was on the team, never having played a game of football before in her life.
"I was pretty overwhelmed at the first practice. I've always watched football and Super Bowls, gone to the college games. I knew the basic rules and penalties, but I had no idea what goes into drawing up the plays," she said.
But that didn't matter very much in a league that is only four years old, in which veterans have only a few years' experience.
"If they think that you have some good athletic ability, they'll take you," she said.
Though they play on youth fields with a slightly smaller ball and attract only a few hundred fans, the Sharks play the same game as their male counterparts.
"You kind of become like a pseudo-parent to these kids, so I'm worried about her now," Fedorjaka said.
They tackle and sack and run 100-yard fields.
But they aren't paid for their time - far from it. The players are required to foot the bill for their own equipment and raise $1,000 each.
"It sure seems like a lot to me, but it's pretty fair," LeBlanc, who has not reached the quota yet, said.
It has also been a considerable time commitment for LeBlanc, whose journey from her home in Madison, N.J., to practice takes a few hours and costs several dollars in tolls.
When the season starts Saturday, increased travel created a greater time strain, but LeBlanc said she is excited.
"We'll finally be tackling other people instead of each other. It will make it more worth it to make the 2-hour trip," she said.
Playing for the Sharks has been a far cry from Bucknell basketball, but it has satisfied LeBlanc's desire to compete. The former starting forward and captain of Fedorjaka's basketball team has had to get used to a few new things, such as sitting on the bench.
"With basketball, I felt that I was experienced and playing time was always there. I expected to play and did. In football, I still feel that I should be playing and maybe that I have the athletic ability that my teammates have but the experience is lacking," she said.
That is balanced out by the thrill of trying something new and the knowledge that more experience will probably bring more playing time.
The culture of football is also new. The members of the Bucknell basketball team were all similar - college students, hand-picked and groomed to fit Fedorjaka's image.
The Sharks hail from backgrounds as varied as law, construction and education.
"There's people of all different sizes, athletic abilities and commitment levels. Everybody can bring in something different," she said.
The team practices twice a week and on weekends in Queens and Staten Island. The Sharks have eight regular-season weekend games at sites up and down the East Coast.
