Girl Can Play Ball

You probably haven’t heard of a women’s pro-football team called the Dallas Diamonds. But they could be the most dominant team on the planet. This season, they are undefeated through their first five games and have beaten their opponents 58-0, 91-0, and 62-0. One of their star defensive backs, Anne Watson, weighed 204 pounds just 2 years ago. That’s when she decided she needed to change her life.

In August 2006 she joined 24 Hour Fitness and began training with Michael Mummert, a young trainer with an up-tempo style, constantly switching up the routines with his clients.

At 204 pounds, Watson’s first goal was weight loss. Mummert created a resistance-training plan for her and cranked up her cardio, adding spin classes and daily sprints on the basketball court to her routine. In October 2007, after getting leaner, she refocused her training to body sculpting.

But then Watson heard about open tryouts for the Dallas Diamonds women’s pro-football team. As a girl whose childhood revolved around the amped-up Big Ten Ohio State football games, Watson was thrilled at the thought of lacing up her own pads and shoving back a helmet. So she approached Mummert with the bold goal of making the team. “He didn’t laugh or tell me I was crazy, he embraced the idea, and we went to work,” she says.

Admiring Watson’s dedication, Mummert taught her everything he knew about football, loaned her his college jersey during tryouts, and sent her text messages, to the tone of “give it everything you can” and “I’m proud of you no matter what.” Now a fit, fast 136-pound defensive back (same position Mummert played in Division II college ball), Watson signed a 2-year contract with the Dallas Diamonds in early 2008.

Mummert’s own football mentor taught him that tactical technique and heart can win out against the bigger, stronger players on the field. And Mummert saw that heart in Watson when she resumed training after undergoing multiple surgeries for uterine cancer, quickly bouncing back and competing in the rugged football tryouts against women half her age. “You train the person for whatever comes,” Mummert says. “No matter how crazy you think it is, you’ve got to believe they can achieve it.”

It took grueling training sessions of end-zone-to-end-zone runs, Indian runs, flipping and hauling tires, 100-yard bear crawls, and taking a cleat to the shin during later scrimmaging, but thanks to Mummert, Watson was ready. Walking into the locker room before her first game, she eyed her jersey for the first time: silver, black, and purple; Watson: No. 45. A surge of nerves and excitement shot through her, which was amplified as she sprinted onto the field during. That day, with Mummert in the stands, the Diamonds shut down the Kansas City Tribe 58-0. “Now I understand the adrenaline rush of playing in America’s most celebrated game,” she says. “I’ve waited my whole life to do something like this.”

Although Watson has a staff training her with the Dallas Diamonds, she still meets with Mummert weekly. They work on coverage drills, stances, technique, and explosive strength training. “He keeps on challenging me to do new and different things,” she says.