TISDALE — Tisdale’s Tilka Chapman helped the Moosomin Generals girls football team make history.
The Generals and the daughter of Jessica Steadman and Keith Chapman won the first ever Prairie Girls Football League championship. They beat the Yorkton Lady Gridders on Oct. 31, 26-18.
“It really means a lot to be there for the first in girls football,” Chapman said. “It makes you very proud to be participating in that sort of making of history almost. Paving the way for other girls. … Letting girls know that there’s opportunities. To have an actual league is just like insane, amazing.”
The five-team tackle football league’s inaugural finals pitted two 5-1 squads against each other. Moosomin and Yorkton each handed the other the only blackmark on their regular season records. Chapman contributed in the finals and to the Generals’ season long success. A defensive end in Grade 11 for the Tisdale Middle and Secondary School Tornados, she played defensive tackle, linebacker and some running back for the Generals.
“She is a tough competitor with very good form and technical skills,” Moosomin coach Jason Schenn said. “She also exhibits solid football IQ and sees the field well to be able to read what offences are throwing at us.”
It was not just her play on the field that impressed the Generals. Schenn described Chapman as “a good character player and a good teammate.”
“Of course, with the long distance between Tisdale and Moosomin being at all practices wasn’t possible but with the support of her parents and Tornados coaches, she was able to keep building skills and when she was present, easily picked up our defensive schemes,” he said. “She was always asking what she could do to improve and help the team between practices.”
Chapman enjoyed making new friends on the Generals.
“The girls were so accepting,” she said. “The second I walked into that football room, everyone was so happy to see me. It’s a very inclusive environment.”
Chapman embraced the opportunity to play girls football. She enjoyed competing against competition in her “size range.”
“I really want girls to know they have those opportunities to play on this team and playing in a girls league is not scary whatsoever,” Chapman said. “We have girls who are tiny Grade 6s on our girls team. They have so much fun, and they succeed. Football is really for everyone.”
She appreciates her parents backing her involvement in the league.
“My parents were really excited for me to have this opportunity,” Chapman said. “They would help me out driving back and forth. … They made it possible. If I didn’t have my parents driving, I don’t know if I’d be able to do it.”
She started out playing football in Grade 7 on the TMSS junior squad. The team played the six-man version of the game. What did she like about football?
“At the start, it was totally the adrenaline,” Chapman said. “I had never played a contact sport or really a team sport, for that matter, so I wanted to kind of try it out. I was friends with these guys, and they were all excited about football and I was like, ‘I want to try this too.’
“I realized I really loved the sport. The coaches were very good and the guys on the team were accepting of me. It just encouraged me to keep going.”
In 2019, Chapman attended the 2019 Kelly Bates Football Camp in Muenster. Connections there led to her trying out for and making Team Saskatchewan the summer between Grade 8 and 9.
“Team Sask was really big for me because I had never played senior football before,” she said, noting it was her first time playing nine-man.
It was on Team Sask that she first met some of the Moosomin coaches. When she heard before this season the Generals might be short on players, she reached out and was invited to join.
Most weekends this fall, Chapman competed Saturday or Sunday for the Generals after playing Friday for the Tornados. She praised the TMSS coaching staff for their support of her.
“The coaches are very amazing on the Tornados,” Chapman said. “They help me out with so many opportunities. They help to find opportunities for me. They have also been so supportive of this girls league.”
She loves playing for the Tornados senior team, which had an undefeated regular season and made it all the way to the provincial semifinals. Among her teammates is her younger brother Zenek, a Grade 9 student.
“All of the guys support me,” Chapman said of the Tornados. “Because they’ve grown [up playing] with me, they are also super excited about girls football. … We are such a close-knit team. The coaches have worked so hard for that. … You just have this feeling of belonging.
“On the Tornados, there’s always the challenge to get better. We’re always striving to get better, to better yourself, so it’s a really nice challenge. … I’m really proud to be a Tornado.”
