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By PAUL NOWELL AP Sportswriter FENTON, Mo. — Pam Steinmetz remembers the year she had stitches everywhere nose, lips and chin. Elizabeth Bowden’s team mates say she plays tougher after somebody knocks her eyeglasses off a few times. Welcome to the world of women’s touch football. Steinmetz and Bowden are teammates on the Challengers, one of three St. Louis teams that will compete in the national touch football championships that were played here last Saturday. Fourteen teams, including defending champion LaBarbera’s of St. Louis, vied for the crown in the tournament.m. Sunday This year’s field also includes teams from Illinois, Iowa, Michigan and Indiana. Steinmetz, 31, says she decided on a whim four years ago to try out for the Challengers, then known by another name. “I’ve played all sports,’’ says Steinmetz, who coaches tennis at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. “I’ve played volleyball, basketball, tennis and softball. This was one sport I never ex perienced and I wanted a chance at it.” “I love the position of wide receiver,’ she says. “I like the challenge of going one on one against someone. And it feels so good to have the ball come into your hand and have it stay there.”” Margot Miller, middle linebacker for Mike’s PVI of Calumet, Ill., last year’s runner up, formed a women’s touch foot ball league seven years ago in her suburban Chicago hometown. “Some of the other players and myself used to spend our Sundays watching the men play,” she says. ‘“‘One day we just decided ‘We can do this.’”’ ‘Maybe our real interest comes from the fact that we’re not supposed to do it,’’ she says. Women’s touch football is more physical and violent than it ap pears from the sidelines, Miller says. ‘‘A lot of hitting goes on that isn’t seen by the officials,’ she says. John Baricevic, coach of Den ny’s Devils of Caseyville, Ill., and a former college football coach, says the players ‘‘don’t hesiitate to stick somebody when they have to.
Newspaper Details
Sedalia Democrat
Sedalia, Missouri, US
Fri, Nov 11, 1983
Page 13
Full Page
Clipped by
Jenifer W.
USA 25 Jun 2026
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