Despite having Andrew Harris, Nik Lewis and Brad Sinopoli at a flag football clinic for young girls, the girls focused more of the female players of the WCFL, perhaps suggesting that football is expanding beyond its typical borders.

Many of the young girls that had taken part in the flag football clinic at Evraz Place gravitated to a trio of Regina Riot players, asking the members of the women’s tackle football team to sign their t-shirts. When it was all said and done, that trio of women was busier than Harris, Lewis and Sinopoli were, still signing as the CFLers left the field and waited for a co-ed clinic to start shortly after.

The clinic had girls from 10-15 and had all of the established football players teaching the basics of the game: footwork, ball protection and one-on-one drills for about 90 minutes.
“It’s a huge opportunity,” said Riot slotback Claire Dore, who has been with the team since it was formed here seven years ago. “Any time we have an opportunity to volunteer and we have an opportunity to talk about football, show excitement for football, especially women’s football, it’s great for us.
“It’s great for us to have the Riot’s name (out there) but to show young ladies that football is something that’s accessible for them and that there are places they can go and play.”
Also on hand to deliver a similar message was Alouettes assistant general manager Catherine Raiche. She spoke to the girls at the end of the clinic and told them about her climb through the organization.
A lawyer for three years before she joined the team in 2015 as a volunteer, she was eventually hired to help manage the team’s salary cap, structured player contracts and handled the team’s travel arrangements. The message was brief, but powerful.
“This is what I always wanted to do,” she told the group. “I kept on working hard, working hard, working hard.
“I started and I volunteered, unpaid I was helping out with basic stuff: Driving cars, driving players around, really basic stuff. I got a contract, I worked for them. And now I just got promoted to assistant general manager, football ops.”
http://www.cfl.ca/2017/03/28/oleary-...nder-barriers/