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Cool past article on Dawn from her local paper, just spreading the news so others can read it. Womens Pro Football is here to stay!

thetimesrecord

SOMERVILLE, Mass. — Dawn Herring has been at it for seven years, but the idea is still novel to people she meets: A girl playing pro football?

“After the games Saturday, in the locker room I’m putting on high heels and a dress for the ‘after party,’” Herring explained Tuesday, still in her gear from that night’s practice.

Despite all the state titles the Lisbon High School football team has won over the years, Herring, 27, may be the only former Greyhound currently playing the sport beyond college. And she didn’t first pull on a pair of shoulder pads until after her field hockey career at the University of Southern Maine.

At that time, one of her Huskies teammates had a brother coaching for the Maine Freeze of the National Women’s Football Association. He convinced her to take a shot at the gridiron.

“I loved it,” Herring recalled.

Now, at the end of her seventh regular season as a football player, the 1999 Lisbon High graduate is staring down what she calls “the biggest game I’ve ever been a part of in my athletic career.”

On Saturday night, her current team, the undefeated Boston Militia, will host the Dallas Diamonds in a first round playoff matchup. The Militia — which has dispatched eight opponents this season by an average score of 48-2 — is ranked second in the top tier of teams in the Independent Women’s Football League (IWFL) Eastern Conference. The Diamonds are the league’s defending champions.

Game time is 6 p.m. at Dilboy Stadium in Somerville.

Herring’s road to the top level of her sport wasn’t without its bumps. She tore her anterior cruciate ligament near the end of her first season with the Freeze, then in her third season, playing for the IWFL’s Maine Rebels, she broke her ankle.

“Through lots of injuries, I kept coming back,” said Herring, a halfback. “You’re putting your body through a pretty harsh beating, and you work out on the side if you want to get ahead. There are moms out here with kids and full-time jobs. This is a huge commitment.”

Herring was living in Massachusetts and commuting to Old Orchard Beach to play for the Rebels when she suffered the ankle injury. So the following season, she signed on with the Bay State Warriors to reduce her travel time.

Two years later, the Warriors and Mass Mutiny — two Boston-area teams that competed in the second tier of the IWFL — merged to become the Militia and rose to the top tier.

Herring initially moved to Massachusetts to take a job as a regional manager with Abercrombie & Fitch. She now manages a Boston Sports Club in the south end of the city.

But looking back at her days in the Lisbon schools, Herring recalls that it was Sugg Middle School teacher and longtime assistant high school football coach John Murphy who first taught her to throw a football correctly.

“I went to every single Lisbon High School football game — home or away,” she said. “If we had a field hockey game, we’d get in the car afterward and go to the (football) game.”

Now, she’s the one suiting up in the helmet and shoulder pads and stepping onto the gridiron. Although unlike her former Lisbon classmates, she’s often doing it wearing brightly colored nail polish.

“I’m probably one of the girlier girls on the team,” she admitted with a laugh. “(My teammates) give me a hard time about it, but it’s all in good fun. We have a lot of characters in that locker room, and that’s just my character.”