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| History of the D.C. Divas The team has an overall 9 year record of 67-18 with 1 World Championship in 2006 and 5 straight Division titles from 2003 through 2007. The D.C. Divas made their full-contact football debut in 2001. Comprised of women from varied professional and athletic backgrounds, the team was the first of its kind in the Washington metropolitan area. On May 12th, 2001 the Divas won the first game in franchise history with a 10-6 victory over the visiting Connecticut Crush.
In 2004 the Divas partnered with syndicated radio personalities "The Sports Junkies" for a highly successful charity game pitting the men vs. women on a football field. Over 8,500 fans turned out which is believed to be the largest crowd ever to watch a women's tackle football game on a team's home field. The Divas made history again after the game when Paul Hamlin, father of Divas quarterback Allyson Hamlin, became the first father in pro sports history to purchase a team to support his daughter and her teammates. The following year
also saw the team move their home field, from Eastern High School in Washington,
D.C. to nearby Prince George's County, Maryland. The Prince George's Sports
and Learning Complex, a modern facility with state of the art amenities
for coaches, players and fans alike, became the Divas full-time home.
The ladies promptly christened their new field with a perfect home record
and another undefeated regular season. The Divas marched through another
undefeated regular season, which featured seven shutouts in eight regular
season games. Led by the league's leading defense, the Divas surrendered
a league low 56 total points in 10 games. The equally rugged offense scored
nearly 300 points on the season, while averaging over three hundred rushing
yards per game. The year finished with 13 Divas and the coaching staff
represented in the Gender Bowl. This made for TV Battle of the Sexes was
played against men in the historic L.A. Coliseum and featured the Divas
first trip to Hollywood. A year later the D.C. Divas joined the Independent Women's Football League (IWFL) and won their 5th straight division title with a perfect 8-0 record. Founded in 2000, the IWFL is a full tackle, women's football league focused on creating a positive, safe and fun environment for players and spectators. Currently the IWFL has over 2,000 participating women on 43 different teams, representing the league across the United States and Canada. The Divas 2008 season was an exciting one against outstanding competition from New York, Boston and Pittsburgh. The hard fought 4-4 record saw all 4 exciting and hard fought defeats come in the last two minutes which kept the Divas from recording their 5th straight undefeated regular season. The D.C. Divas have appeared on numerous national news outlets including ESPN, PBS and the CBS Evening news. The team has been featured locally in the Washington Post and numerous radio-print and TV outlets. The D.C. Divas players remain a very active part of the community logging over 200 community hours and helping to raise thousands of dollars in the last year. History of the League The Independent Women's Football League (IWFL) is a full tackle women's football league focused on creating a positive, safe and fun environment for the women who play the game and fans that come out to watch them. The IWFL was founded in 2000 by a group of women dedicated to making the sport a household name. The IWFL currently has over 1000 women playing the sport for 30 teams across North America from Southern California to Montreal and Oregon to Florida with consistent expansion into to new markets. |
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[Contact
the D.C. Divas] [Gold Divas Club]
[History] [Home Field
Information] [In The Community] ©2000
- 2010 All Rights Reserved - D.C. Divas is a registered trademark of the
D.C. Divas |
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The
2009 D.C. Divas are the IWFL Eastern Conference Champions. The team finished
the season with a 10-1 record and captured their 6th division title in
7 seasons. The conference championship against Boston produced one of
the most thrilling moments in D.C. Divas history when Tara Stephenson
returned a kickoff 85 yards for the game winning touchdown with less than
a minute to play. The Divas advanced to the IWFL championship game in
Round Rock, Texas against the Kansas City Tribe. The Divas led the contest
10-7 in the third quarter but eventually fell 21-18 in an exciting fourth
quarter duel. The Divas are entering their 10th season of play in 2010
and have many ways to measure their decade of excellence. A winning percentage
of .788 is tops among all Washington area sports teams during the same
period and the Divas still posses the longest winning streak in the area
with 19 straight over 2 seasons (2006-2007).
In
2002 the Divas were reenergized by an infusion of new leadership when
two die-hard fans, Leah Fahringer and Kelly George, purchased the team
from the league. The 2003 campaign was full of history as the Divas recorded
their first of five straight division titles. The season was punctuated
by Running back Donna "The Animal" Wilkinson who became the first woman
in history to rush for over a thousand yards in an 8 game season (1,267
yards). 
2006 was a championship year from start to finish. The Divas defense was
once again dominant, allowing just six points over the course of the first
nine games and only twenty for the entire season. The Divas offense was
just as imposing, rolling to a scoring average of 47 plus points per game.
On Saturday, August 5th, 2006 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania the Divas faced
the Oklahoma City Lightning in the Championship Game. A total team effort
led to a hard fought 28-7 victory and the team's first World Championship.