(Submitted photo/Tilka Chapman)

By Ben Tompkins

Regina Riot

Grade 12 Tisdale girl hosts northern female football development camp

May 27, 2023 | 9:32 AM

Grade five to twelve girls from all across the northern parts of the province recently got the chance to train in a football development camp.

Tilka Chapman, a grade 12 girl from Tisdale, hosted the ‘Northern Female Football Development Camp’ in her hometown this past Saturday (May 20).

A member of the Regina Riot Football organization, Chapman also brought along her teammates to help instruct.

“For a while now I’ve been thinking about how northeast Saskatchewan doesn’t have as many opportunities in female football as southern Saskatchewan, so I’ve been trying to start a base for female football in northeast Saskatchewan, and this year since I am injured and awaiting surgery, I decided to plan a camp,” she said.

“It was amazing to just see because growing up us girls that are playing for Riot, we never had these opportunities. We never got to go to female football camps when we were younger and we never got to properly learn how to throw or catch a football. So to see girls learning these skills at such a young age and being able to further their careers with so many new opportunities that are coming up was amazing.”

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Tisdale Minor Football also helped Chapman, as they provided two coaches for the camp, while Northern Strength helped her with media, Lucas Embroidery provided custom shirts, and the Riot provided prizes such as game tickets.

As for the girls in the camp, they hailed from places like Carrot River, La Ronge, St. Brieux, Melfort, Nipawin, Prince Albert, and Tisdale.

They worked on basic football knowledge and skills like tackling, catching, throwing, and blocking.

“It was a safe place for younger girls to learn the game without feeling intimidated or shy, they could just be around their friends, and they could learn the game with girls that are their same size and their same skill level,” added Chapman.

“For me, it was a very emotional experience. First of all, I was super excited that we had all these girls out, I was so proud to see the girls that I’ve been coaching, come and shine through, and so proud to see my fellow teammates step up and coach these girls.”

This camp was just a no-contact version, however, Chapman is hopeful to be able to run one with equipment on later this year.

A tackle camp would give the girls a better view of tackle football and how to play it against other girls.

“Coaching is something that is a passion of mine and I would like to continue to be able to do that while helping girls preserve their football career. I want this to be an annual thing. I’m hoping that each year we can do one or two camps, get the crowd bigger, get all the girls involved and have more people realize that this is something that you can do and follow until after high school,” explained Chapman.

“I’m hoping to come back to Tisdale and eventually try to start a female football team. Start a northeast female football organization and eventually turn that into a high school team that we can take and play the girls from the Prairie Girls Football League, and just become a force in female football.”

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Ben.Tompkins@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter @BenTompkins_8