Girl breaks tackles, gender barrier at RMF Spring League

Jayda Duval is proving football isn’t just for the boys out on the gridiron.

The Grade 11 Balfour Collegiate student became the first female ever to be selected to play for a team in the Regina Minor Football (RMF) Spring League in its 11-year history.

The developmental league had 241 players from many high schools compete for spots; 177 of them eventually were put onto teams.

While she never doubted her own skills, Duval was still surprised to get the call that she was selected to a team.

“I scheduled my life around not making a team because I was like ,’There’s no way,’ but I tried hard at tryouts and I guess that paid off,” Duval said.

It’s not the first time Duval has tackled the gender barrier; she joined the Balfour Bears football team this past year as a wide receiver.

“I was scared, very scared, but then I toughed it out and the boys were good about it so it wasn’t too scary at first,” she said.

Duval said it was shocking to her that she made her high school team.

“I was kind of proud of myself,” she said. “I’m better than some of the boys and I deserved to be there.”

On the team, she’s treated just like everyone else.

“They won’t give me any pity,” Duval said. “They shove my face to the ground. They don’t care. I like that.”

Jayda Duval at the Regina Minor Football League Spring League tryouts. (Regina Victorias/Twitter)

Tanner Sokalofsky is the coach of Team 1 in the spring league and was the one who chose Duval to play for him. He said his staff has a few coaches from the Balfour team so that connection was already in place.

“What I noticed was she is pretty disciplined, she’s not going to take stupid penalties, she’s very coachable (and) she shows that hard work ethic,” Sokalofsky said. “It was a no-brainer that we got her on our team.”

Duval is still pretty new to the game of football, having only played it for one season with the Regina Riot of the Western Women’s Canadian Football League. She also joined the RMF’s Regina Victorias.

During her first year on the team, she said there wasn’t a lot of new players coming out but she has noticed a shift in that mentality.

“There’s a lot of girls that come up to me and say, ‘Hey, can I try out for this?’ and I’m like, ‘Yeah, here’s a time,’ and they’ve just got this big smile on their face,” Duval said. “And that’s when you know football has grown and people are excited.”

The spring league runs until the middle of May.