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Nebraska Pride offers women, non-binary athletes in Omaha metro a chance to play football.
The fading sunlight glints off the top of Nicole Skolnick’s helmet.
Her brown hair, twisted into a single braid, falls between the two words printed on the back of her jersey: Earn it.
Football in her hands, Skolnick turns to the receiver to her left.
“Ready, set, go,” Skolnick says.
Players huddle at the start of a Nebraska Pride women’s tackle football team practice at Blackburn Alternative Program in Omaha in mid-April.
The receiver begins running a route across the middle of the football field. Skolnick delivers a perfect spiral in her direction.
The next receiver lines up.
“Ready, set, go.”
And repeat.
It was mid-April and the Nebraska Pride football team was preparing for its first game of the season. In every corner of the field, offensive and defensive players were working on drills as coaches yelled instructions.
As a kid, Skolnick did everything she could to get on a football field. She played flag football and playground games with the boys until her opportunities to play petered out.
Now an adult, her football dreams have come true.
Skolnick plays wide receiver and backup quarterback for the Nebraska Pride, a full-tackle football team made up of women and nonbinary athletes. The players range in age from 17 to 40-something. They are educators, police officers, firefighters, students and health care professionals.
Nicole Skolnick (No. 15) runs with the ball during a Nebraska Pride women’s tackle football team practice at Blackburn Alternative Program. Skolnick loved football as a kid and is glad to play again as an adult.
Some players also are mothers. While the players are on the field, some of their kids play along the sidelines. During the practice in April, a toddler danced to “Baby Shark” near the offensive line.
Players, who pay to play, drive to Omaha from Lincoln, Oakland, Columbus, Nebraska City and Des Moines, Iowa, to be on the team.
The team practices and plays its home games at local high school football stadiums. This year, the team is practicing at Blackburn Alternative Program’s football stadium and playing home games at Gale Wickersham stadium in Council Bluffs.
Women’s tackle football has been around for decades, including several previous teams in Omaha. Some of the Pride players started their football careers on those teams.
Now in its second season with the Women’s Football Alliance, the team has something to prove after losing in the second round of the playoffs last year.
“Going into this year we have a fire burning inside of us that we want to earn it,” said head coach Nancy Javaux-Major. “And so we’ve been putting in a lot of work. We’re earning it now so we can collect our ring later.”
So far this season, that fire has resulted in the absolute scorching of opponents. The Pride beat the Sioux Falls Snow Leopards 77-2, the Iowa Phoenix 62-0 and the Minnesota Minx 85-0.
Javaux-Major said the team has to keep scoring in order to bolster its postseason chances because the teams they’ve played so far this season belong in a lower division. The more points the Pride puts up, the better the team will do in the long run, the coach said.
The Pride also are just playing really well.
“For lack of a better term, the ball has just fallen into our lap in the endzone quite a bit,” Javaux-Major said.
The rest of the season should be a more of a challenge. The Pride’s remaining games are against higher-ranked opponents.
The team finds its players through word of mouth or social media. Some are former college athletes in other sports while others have never participated in any sport before joining the team.
“A lot of people go in with a timid approach to it and then a lot of people are like ‘Get me in there. I’m ready to hit somebody,’” Javaux-Major said. “You have a good mix of both.”
The Nebraska Pride women’s tackle football team practices at Blackburn Alternative Program in Omaha in mid-April.
Mika Richards played wide receiver and cornerback for the team last year. How much did Richards know about football before starting in 2022?
“Zero.”
But Richards had just moved to Omaha and wanted to try a new sport.
“Once someone was like, ‘All right, you run and tackle someone.’ I said absolutely,” Richards said. “Everything else will come.”
Tiffany Wright, who plays running back and defensive back, always wanted a shot on the football field. Now, Wright said playing the game is just fun. She gets to run around on a field, catch balls and hit people.
“It’s super competitive,” Wright said. “You have to really put your whole self into it or it’s not going to work. I love the team aspect of it. Everybody on the team is kind of like my family now.”
The team’s name and lion mascot have a few different meanings. When people look at a pride of lions, Javaux-Major said people often think the male is the head honcho but it’s actually the female that takes care of the pride.
“It just kind of brings family together for us,” she said. “Gives a bigger meaning than what we are ourselves.”
Javaux-Major said she has watched her players go from struggling mentally to thriving through the confidence they build on the football field.
“Honestly, as a coach, the confidence I see in women after they start playing is just mind-blowing.”
Nancy Javaux-Major, head coach for the Nebraska Pride women’s tackle football team, center, talks with Britt Peterson, left, and Jessica Stewart, right, during a practice. “Honestly, as a coach, the confidence I see in women after they start playing is just mind-blowing,” she said.
So far this season, Javaux-Major has watched the rookies grow more confident. They’re now making tackles and catches they missed earlier in the season.
Players are getting their first touchdowns and sacks. Javaux-Major said she likes to watch the players’ elated faces as they come off the field after their first big play.
Laura Hansen, a mother of two, joined the team because she was looking for a place to make new friends and to find out what her body could do.
“I’ve actually never played any sports whatsoever,” Hansen said. “Ever.”
A co-worker encouraged Hansen to try out for the team.
She’s now the team’s center — guaranteed to touch the ball every offensive play while snapping the ball to the quarterback.
“That’s the coolest thing I get to say about myself is, ‘I play center,’” Hansen said. “I start at center.”
Born and raised in Lincoln, Hansen said Husker football is in her blood but she quickly discovered that playing football and watching football are completely different things.
Aside from learning all the plays, how to snap the ball and move past mistakes, Hansen had to learn how to adjust her helmet to make it more comfortable.
“Nobody told me how to put a helmet on,” Hansen said. “I’ve just kind of been winging it. Never played. I don’t know how to do this kind of stuff.”
Along the way, her coaches and teammates helped her. When she twisted an ankle while playing, Javaux-Major and her wife showed up to mow her lawn.
Hansen said football has given her a new community. She’s found people she can talk to, have fun with and do hard things with, Hansen said.
“It isn’t easy,” she said of football.
While women’s tackle football isn’t as popular as other women’s sports, Javaux-Major said she thinks interest is growing. She’s already had several moms reach out to her because their daughters are interested in joining the team.
“I don’t think the women’s sports wave is going to go anywhere any time soon so I think we’ll catch it eventually,” Javaux-Major said of women’s football. “We’ll just be late — catching the wave as it’s starting to crest.”
Ilyasah Shabazz takes a photo of the bust of her father, Malcolm X, after he was inducted into the Nebraska Hall of Fame during a ceremony in the Warner Legislative Chamber in Lincoln on Wednesday, May 22, 2024.
Gov. Jim Pillen, left, shakes hands with Ilyasah Shabazz, daughter of Malcolm X, after Malcolm was inducted into the Nebraska Hall of Fame in the Warner Legislative Chamber in Lincoln on Wednesday, May 22, 2024.
Ilyasah Shabazz poses for a photo of the bust of her father, Malcolm X, after he was inducted into the Nebraska Hall of Fame during a ceremony in the Warner Legislative Chamber in Lincoln on Wednesday, May 22, 2024.
Ilyasah Shabazz talks about her father, Malcolm X, after he was inducted into the Nebraska Hall of Fame during a ceremony in the Warner Legislative Chamber in Lincoln on Wednesday, May 22, 2024.
Ernie Chambers talks about how Malcolm X was inducted into the Nebraska Hall of Fame during a ceremony in the Warner Legislative Chamber in Lincoln on Wednesday, May 22, 2024.
A bust of Malcolm X that will be used in the Nebraska Hall of Fame, photographed in the Warner Legislative Chamber in Lincoln on Wednesday, May 22, 2024.
Gov. Jim Pillen signs a proclamation declaring Malcolm X day after he was Inducted into the Nebraska Hall of Fame in the Warner Legislative Chamber in Lincoln on Wednesday, May 22, 2024. Behind him is JoAnna LeFlore-Ejike, Malcolm X Foundation executive director, center, and Malcolm’s daughter, Ilyasah Shabazz, right.
JoAnna LeFlore-Ejike, Malcolm X Foundation executive director, speaks at the ceremony to induct Malcolm X into the Nebraska Hall of Fame in the Warner Legislative Chamber in Lincoln on Wednesday, May 22, 2024.
Ilyasah Shabazz talks about her father, Malcolm X, after he was inducted into the Nebraska Hall of Fame during a ceremony in the Warner Legislative Chamber in Lincoln on Wednesday, May 22, 2024.
Gov. Jim Pillen, left, makes Nathan Murray an honorary Admiral in the Nebraska Navy in the Warner Legislative Chamber in Lincoln on Wednesday, May 22, 2024. Murray made the bust of Malcolm X to be used in the Nebraska Hall of Fame.
Ernie Chambers talks about how Malcolm X was inducted into the Nebraska Hall of Fame during a ceremony in the Warner Legislative Chamber in Lincoln on Wednesday, May 22, 2024.
emily.nitcher@owh.com, 402-444-1192, twitter.com/emily_nitcher
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Nebraska Pride offers women, non-binary athletes in Omaha metro a chance to play football.
Players huddle at the start of a Nebraska Pride women’s tackle football team practice at Blackburn Alternative Program in Omaha in mid-April.
Nicole Skolnick (No. 15) runs with the ball during a Nebraska Pride women’s tackle football team practice at Blackburn Alternative Program. Skolnick loved football as a kid and is glad to play again as an adult.
The Nebraska Pride women’s tackle football team practices at Blackburn Alternative Program in Omaha in mid-April.
Nancy Javaux-Major, head coach for the Nebraska Pride women’s tackle football team, center, talks with Britt Peterson, left, and Jessica Stewart, right, during a practice. “Honestly, as a coach, the confidence I see in women after they start playing is just mind-blowing,” she said.
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