Julia Maisey
the team. While Maisey and Pirrie dress in separate change
rooms from the boys, Milne has a locker in the main
football dressing room and puts on her uniform with the
rest of the team. For her, the Bulldogs are “family.”
“We’re such a small team that I don’t the guys even notice
anymore,” she said. “I have a locker next to my friend
Ben (fellow linebacker Barhame) and we just talk about
the game and what we have to do. It was different at first,
but this is my third year with the team and I don’t think
anybody notices anymore.”
True. In fact, her coach, former Bulldog and McGill
University star, Kirkland Harper, doesn’t even notice. He
has a different issue.
“We have the smallest school in the WHSFL with 480
students and I have only 21 players on my varsity roster,”
said Harper with a laugh. “For us, it’s all hands on deck. I
don’t care that Kyla’s a girl. To me she’s a football player and
at Churchill, we need all the bodies we can get. It’s threeways at Churchill. You aren’t just an offensive or defensive
player. Kyla starts on special teams and gets plenty of snaps
at linebacker.
“It’s my job to get my players coached up and prepared.
So it’s my job to make sure Kyla gets good coaching and is
ready to play.”
Brooke Pirrie
crap, but I can hit people and I like it. I never really played
football in my life before this years. I did spend a couple of
weeks with the East Side Eagles girls but that isn’t the same
as this. I’ve now played one game of varsity football and I
have half a special teams’ tackle. It was great. I wrapped the
guy up and the rest of my team came in and hauled him
down. It was a rush.”
Pirrie, on the other hand, had some experience when
she started with the Gophers. She played three years with
the North Winnipeg Nomads before playing high school
ball. Like Maisey, she’s a linebacker, but while Maisey
and Milne play in the Double A Kas Vidruk Division of
the WHSFL, Pirrie plays Triple A against perennial high
school powerhouses such as Grant Park, St. Paul’s, Massey,
Sturgeon Heights and Oak Park.
“I just love it,” said Pirrie, who is a 15-year-old Grade 10
student. “It’s a rush. I just love everything about the sport.
Hitting people is what makes the sport – and the position I
play – so much fun. I just love everything about the game.”
For Milne, playing football was simply a family game
that she always suspected she’d play someday. He uncle
was a tremendous player and her brother was a solid
Bulldog who graduated last year.
After playing two years alongside her brother, she’s
now on her own, but it’s not like she isn’t a big part of
16 / sportslife