US Women’s Tackle National Team Wins Gold With FirstDown PlayBook
FirstDown PlayBook just keeps on racking up champions with women’s football teams. Earlier this year, the Ottawa Braves Women’s Flag Football team won their second national championship using FirstDown PlayBook. The U.S. Women’s Tackle Football National Team is the latest example, as they marched their way through the world championships this month in Finland. These IFAF World Championship Gold Medal winners leaned heavily on FirstDown PlayBook throughout the three game tournament.
When the FirstDown PlayBook phone rang back in April of this year, it was Jim Farrell on the line. He had a big job in front of him. The good news was that he was going to be the offensive coordinator for the U.S. Women’s Tackle Football National Team. This meant that he was going to coach the best women football players in the country and hopefully the world. Jim has faced this challenge before as he was the head coach back in 2017.
The challenging part was that these players were strewn all across the United States. Even the head coach, Callie Brownson was in the middle of OTA’s with the Cleveland Browns. She was working her normal job as the wide receivers coach. Jim had the job of beginning the installation process with the U.S. Women’s Tackle Football National Team offense.
Coach Farrell Had To Get Players Ready From All Points Across The US
Now, stop and think about that for a moment. Many of you are struggling to get your players on the same page and they live in the same town. Imagine the challenge if your players were spread out across the country. Your quarterback, Brittany Bushman, is in Boston and your receivers are in Ohio, California and other parts of the U.S.
Nineteen (19) states were represented on the final U.S. National Team roster, including: Massachusetts (7), Texas (6), Maryland (5), Virginia (5), California (3), Georgia (2), Pennsylvania (2), Minnesota (2), Ohio (2), Utah (2), Colorado (1), Illinois (1), Michigan (1), Missouri (1), New Mexico (1), New Jersey (1), New York (1), North Carolina (1), and Washington (1).
Basically, Jim had to get their playbook drawn and installed before the team showed up in North Canton, Ohio. There would be a one week training camp on July 21-27. After that, it was off to Vantaa, Finland for the games. One of the things that stood out to us as we took Coach Farrell through FirstDown PlayBook was his excitement when he saw we already had thousands of pre-drawn plays.
Coach Farrell is like a lot of us. He has a day job too as a high school teacher and coach in Illinois. FirstDown PlayBook was going to save him time. This was a good thing. He knew he was going to need every minute he could get to prepare and get the roster up to speed for the training camp.
The U.S. Women’s Tackle Football National Team Averaged 44 Points Per Game To Bring Home Gold
Fast forward to today. As we know, the U.S. Women’s National Team marched to victories over Germany, Finland and Great Britain. The offense averaged 44 points per game. We spoke with Coach Farrell about the whole process after he had a chance to get settled back here in the U.S. He noted that the ability to have every individual player log in to their offensive installs was critical. In addition, it allowed them to walk in knowing their assignments when they got to Canton.
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Jim also referenced that FirstDown PlayBook allowed him to make in-game adjustments when injuries or a surprise defense showed up. This had a part in the explosion of points the U.S. Women’s Tackle Football National Team put up in the second half of the championship game vs Great Britain. As we listened to Jim, it was great to hear how an experienced coach had used FirstDown PlayBook. It was also good to know we could be a small part of bringing home the gold to the United States.
