Chicago Force players watch from the sidelines during their game against Western Michigan. Photo by Lauren Camplin 

By Lauren Camplin and Ali Trumbull

They refer to themselves as the “Band of Sisters”. They’re teachers, singers, police officers, full-time moms and nurses.

Despite differing backgrounds, the group of over 60 women come together every week for the same reason—to play tackle football for the Chicago Force.

“We have a camaraderie with one another and that was one of the reasons why I came back because I missed the team and I missed being around my band of sisters,” said offensive linesman Rosalyn Bennett.

Formed in 2003, the Chicago Force joined the Women’s Football Alliance after spending eight seasons with the Independent Women’s Football League.

“The new league is an opportunity to play different competition,” said George Howe, Director of Media Relations. “We were looking for new challenges after playing the same teams for eight years.”

The league is not to be confused with the well-known Lingerie Football League’s Chicago Bliss. The WFA women wear full gear and play tackle football.  This can come as a shock even to those trying out for the team.

“Seeing what it takes to run a team was a shock to my system,” said Samantha Powell, head of game day operations. “I had no idea all the moving parts of an offensive team and coaching staff, defensive team, special teams, special plays.”

While many of the rules in the league mirror those of the NFL, there are strong differences between the two besides gender. The players in the Women’s Football Alliance have to pay $600 to play on the team in order to cover expenses. Some women have multiple jobs along with being on the team.

“I’m an actress and I’m also a bartender to pay the bills and I play music,” said starting quarterback Samantha Grisafe. “I have a band, The Wick, so we play all around Chicago-Double Door, Martyr’s, Reggie’s, that’s a lot of fun. So I basically get to perform in all aspects of the word.”

Bennett, Dean of Students at Dyett High School, works 12 hours a day before coming to the Force’s practice. She is trying to find a way to balance these two worlds with her schedule.

“I haven’t mastered that yet, trying to find that balance, you know,” said Bennett. “I deal with discipline so of course, the course of my day is pretty much at times, negativity. This gives me a chance to relax from the job, the responsibilities, and to just get rid of some of that tension that I experience at the job.”

While it can be a handful to balance personal and professional lives, the team gets plenty of help through fundraising and volunteers.

“Almost all of us are volunteers,” said Howe. “That in itself takes a special kind of person. You have to have people like that.”

The team holds golf outings, calendar raffles, and bowling outings to raise money. Even with volunteers, getting a strong  following is no easy task.

“The biggest obstacle is getting the word out,” said Howe. “A lot of newspapers don’t take small teams seriously. When you ask about women’s football people think lingerie league.”

Powell also agrees getting the word out is the toughest part of getting participation, adding that the team takes a “grass-roots approach” to building a fan base.

The Force beat the Western Michigan Mayhem 15-6 in a cold, rainy May game. Photo by Ali Trumbull

 Getting attention is also difficult when the women wear full padding instead of lingerie. Chicago Force assistant coach Stacey Baker acknowledges that while the Lingerie Football League has competitive players, it doesn’t compare to the type of game the Chicago Force play.

“You know how there’s WWE wrestling and there’s Olympic wrestling?,” said Baker. “I don’t really see it as football. Are there good athletes on the team? Absolutely.”

Baker is one example of the athletic ability required to play in the Women’s Football Alliance. After playing football for five years, she was forced to retire after enduring a neck injury last season. Despite the injury, Baker remained committed to the league and became an assistant coach.

“I couldn’t stay away,” said Baker. “I loved it. It’s been hard not to play but I hope I’m making an impact on the team now.”

Even with a dedicated team, generating interest can be difficult because of the stereotypes often affiliated with women sports.

Quarterback Samantha Grisafe, who has been playing football since she was 10-years-old, has dealt with the stereotypes her whole life. When asked how she responds to it, she didn’t hesitate before answering.

“You show ‘em.”

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“It was going to be a great day either way,”said DePaul head coach Eugene Lenti. “Everyone was really excited. There wasn’t much pressure.”

Unfortunately, the softball team did not get the exciting start they wanted.

The DePaul Blue Demons (36-12) ended their sixteen game winning streak after losing 4-1 to the University of South Florida Bulls (33-18) Saturday in the first game of the double header. The Blue Demons had their longest winning streak since 2007 when the team had 20 wins in a row.

The game started as a battle between pitchers Lindsey Dean (9-5) and Sara Nevins (15-7). Neither pitcher allowed a hit through the first two innings of the game and Nevins remained in the game the entire seven innings.

DePaul’s two errors and a double by USF’s Kourtney Salvarola in the third inning put USF up 4-0. The Blue Demons had not been down more than 4 runs that early in a game since March 30^th.

Blue Demon sophomore Bree Brown came in the fifth inning to relieve Lindsey Dean and struck out seven of the first nine batters she faced, allowing only one hit. She has had three saves this season.

DePaul built off that momentum in the sixth inning with runners on first and third base and only one out. Samantha Dodd, who doubled in the fourth inning, stole second and an error by USF catcher Laura Fountain allowed Blue Demon pinch-runner McKenzie Madigan to score.

DePaul’s Lynsey Ciezki grounded out to end the inning and leave Dodd at second. DePaul left runners on base three times and had five hits in the game.

The Blue Demons took a final shot in the seventh inning with one more run in the seventh on an USF error. Freshman Kirsten Verdun’s foul to left field was just shy of a home run and DePaul fell 4-2. The game was only the team’s second conference loss this season.

“We made a couple of defensive mistakes,” said head coach Lenti. “We still felt we would do well with the second game.”

Lindsey Dean’s record dropped to 9-5 after the loss but it wasn’t enough to keep her off the Big East Conference Honor Roll for the third consecutive time.

The Blue Demons crushed USF 13-5 in the second of the double header. The third game was forfeited for “safety reasons”. Splitting the series, DePaul clinched the number two seed going into the Big East Championship tournament. Had DePaul won and Notre Dame lost, the Blue Demons could’ve earned a share of the regular-season title.

Still, Coach Lenti remains optimistic about the future.

“This team is different because of their togetherness,” said coach Lenti, “Along with the way our pitching has been going and our hitting picking up.”

The DePaul softball team will head to Ulmer Stadium in Louisville to face No. 7 Rutgers (19-29, 7-12) in their first game of the Big East Tournament at 12:30 p.m. Thursday.

DePaul previously played Rutgers at New Brunswick back in late April and won the series 9-4 and 15-10. If the team advances past the first round, they will have to face #3 Syracuse or #6 Pittsburgh.

Both Garfien and Clark believed that being proactive was an important key for young journalists and students to be successful.

“Make your own breaks,” said Garfien. “Every day you come to work give your best. No one is going to hold your hand.”

Clark, who has moved around web production for the past 13 years, saw flexibility as another essential characteristic of successful journalists.

“Don’t for the most part ever think you’ll be settled in a job for more than a few years,” said Clark. “Adapting is a huge thing.”

The two journalists gave other insights for hopeful journalists to look forward to, including preparation for rejection and a lot of it. Garfien also suggested new journalists start in a small market because “you’re going to be really bad”.

Harsh realities aside, Garfien believes it is a good time for dedicated young journalists to make a name for themselves.

“it’s a very difficult profession to break into and stay in,” said Garfien. “But if you love this and you’re interested in it, by all means go for it.”

Garfien discussed different ways that passionate journalists can reach a successful career, including building confidence and a brand.

“To be in this business you need a voice,” said Garfien. “You need to represent something. You as a person are a brand.”

Garfien and Clark also stressed incorporating social media into journalism.

“If you want to be in this business you have to be on Twitter,” said Garfien. “Everything breaks on Twitter. It can be beneficial.”

Clark agreed but also warned students that wanting to get the news out first rather than right can be a “credibility hit”.

Garfien believes that in end, being as versatile a journalist as possible will pay off. He said that by focusing in one area of journalism but learning all platforms within it will make a person more marketable.

“Sportscasters do it all. There are lazy sportscasters out there who don’t get it. Those days are over.”

Modern sports reporters have already begun incorporating technology like Twitter and Facebook into their game coverage. Newspapers have also “beefed up” their sports sections online. The Chicago Sun-Times has a good example of high school sports reporting with their page, Your Season.

A similar example is the Richmond Times-Dispatch coverage of their local sports. The Virginia paper has a section in their online content called XTRA, which includes an impressive list of high school coverage, video, pictures and feature stories. The addition of these elements in news coverage is important in modern sports because industry giants such as ESPN might not have the time to cover hyper local teams.

Newspapers have also used online content to report professional sports. The Detroit News put up coverage of the upcoming playoffs by using an interactive line match up between the Red Wings and Phoenix Coyotes. The story includes stats and team comparisons and allows the user to decide what they want to focus on.

The online community has become a strong outlet for interactive coverage of local sports. MaxPreps, bought by CBS sports in 2007, highlights promising high school football programs across the country in their “Football Tour of Champions”. The map allows the user to click around and see highlights, stories, and interviews of skilled teams.

Impressive online content can take many forms, including databases. Rivals, an offshoot of Yahoo Sports, is a source for finding elite high school basketball players across the country. Rivals ranks the top 150 players along with various stats and probable colleges.

While the Internet has provided opportunities for local coverage, it has also given rise to websites dedicated to multiple sports coverage. Sport360, a website that describes itself as the “world’s only English language daily newspaper”, is an online and global version of a paper sports section. An advantage of sites like Sport360 is the expansive coverage they offer that well known sports organizations might not. For instance, Sport 360 provides multimedia and game coverage of cricket, rugby, and cycling. The site also covers content throughout the world, which can be hard to find in U.S. based sports coverage.

The Internet and television have become the central source of sports news and entertainment for younger generations while newspapers have taken a backseat. This rising trend has forced journalists to take a hard look at the rapidly changing profession.

Journalist Gary Andrew Poole believes that while the current dominance of the two mediums can take away from “old school” fundamental sports reporting, it’s the shrinking newspaper columns that are hurting most.

“Today in four-hundred words you can get the basic details of the game story, but you miss the details and the anecdotes,” says Poole. “It’s interesting, and important, to know how the players and managers think, why they made certain decisions. That’s the cool stuff and it’s getting lost.”

A large part of the “old school” vs. “new school” debate has to do with covering the game from the press box, something that blogging and newer approaches lack.

Journalist H.G. Bissinger, who spoke openly against blogging on an HBO special, also believes that Internet reporting can’t match up to press box coverage.

Addressing bloggers  on the topic, Bissinger said, “You’re telling me ‘I don’t want the facts. I don’t want facts getting in the way so I’m going to sit in my little room and I’m going to give this nebulus fan’s voice.’”

Will Leitch, a supporter of “new school” approaches and founder of sports site Deadspin, saw blogging on sports in a different light.

“I get a benefit from distancing a bit,” said Leitch. “I don’t owe anything to anyone but the reader.”

While Leitch feels strongly about taking a “new school” approach, he believes there is room for some balance where “these things can compliment each other”.

Journalist Poole also sees a possibility for compromise and believes that regardless of one’s take on blogging, reporters shouldn’t ignore skills stemming from “old school” times.

“Make statistical information readily available on newspaper Web sites, of course,” said Poole. “But it’s time for narrative storytelling and vividly written game stories to make a comeback.”

As the field of journalism continues to evolve, the debate of old and new becomes crucial to the success of sports reporting, both in print and online.

Some small town papers have found sustainability through foundation funding. Not-for-profit funding has its long-term disadvantages, howevever. The money given eventually runs out and it involves a lot of “begging”, as Duros put it, on the part of the news organization. By finding a long-term solution, reporters can spend less time trying to make profit and more time finding stories.

Duros and other journalists are turning to a new model called the Low Profit Limited Liability Company model to solve the financial instability in journalism markets. Rather than turning to foundations for support, the model believes investors are the way to self-sustaining journalism.

Duros emphasized looking for particular investors related to the topic, organization, or area. This model would take pressure of relying on advertising for profit.

“The L3C model turns it around,” said Duros. “Reporters and stories are important than the ads.”

The model has its advantages but remains relatively new and unused. When looking to build a site or start a paper, journalism entrepreneurs need to decide what model will help them maintain a profit.

A good example of finding sustainability is Maine’s Village Soup. The paper combines local sources to create online and print content and make a profit.

While the L3C model has its advantages, it is unclear whether new start ups will turn to it as a source of revenue.

Some local papers choose to put their content online entirely, like Seattle’s Post-Intelligencer. Many news start-ups now pick the Web as their main source for local journalism rather than print. The biggest local news sources-newspapers-are downsizing and reinventing, many permanently.

Doctor says this change in newspapers’ approaches has and will continue to affect the meaning of local journalism. It requires big and small newspapers alike to remap and reload.

Remapping means redefining local according to the Web. Previously, defining local meant defining a city. With the incorporation of the Internet, local can be as intimate as your street block. Redefining for newspapers means taking the available definitions of local (city, street, neighborhood, ect.) and revamping them.

The major issue with these two components is that readers can find nonlocal news without the editor’s help. They can quickly click on to ESPN or MarketWatch or hundreds of other national sites. This means some papers must become “hyperlocal, or neighborhood-oriented. They will have to make their top stories about the community rather than national issues.

This approach, according to journalism pioneer Mark Potts, is not an easy one.

“Hyperlocal is really hard,” said Potts. ”Don’t kid yourself. You don’t just open the doors and hit critical mass. We knew that from the jump. It takes a lot of work to build a community.”

The timely work Potts refers to is one of the reasons Doctor dubs this transition “incomplete”. While it may be difficult to find a newspaper that doesn’t incorporate blogs, video, pictures, and other add ons, many are not as successful as sites like the Washington Post or the Las Vegas Sun.

Doctor believes the unanswered question of newspapers’ transition into the Digital News Decade revolves around the function of facets (photos, blogs, video). Are they front and center or are they simply add-ons of “printed-news-on-pixel sites”?

Wicker Park offers a wide selection of vintage and thrift stores including Una Mae's. Credit: Maria Cannata

Despite gloomy economic conditions, Wicker Park remains a haven for “underground” culture, fashion, and design.

The Chicago neighborhood is a home for various fashion stores, ranging from well-known chains and designers to locally owned boutiques and thrift stores. Even in times when the Federal Bureau reports retails sales remain “relatively unchanged”, some high-end boutiques manage to stay on top.

View Boutiques in Wicker Park in a larger map

“We opened up in 1997 and there definitely weren’t as many stores then as there are now,” said Nick Johnson, an Una Mae’s employee.

The store originally sold vintage products only but as more stores opened in the area, they were forced to change their image and include more modernized lines.

The evolving area of Wicker Park has forced many boutiques like Una Mae’s to adjust their image and promote their uniqueness. Walking down Milwaukee a casual shopper can find a variety of stores offering the similar merchandise. While some boutiques chose to expand the lines they offer, others chose to focus on a different area.

“It’s all about presentation and knowing merchandise,” said Lendsey Leyland, a manager at Lenny and Me’s on Milwaukee. “We try to set up cute displays so it doesn’t just look like a bunch of junk in a store. Wicker Park is known for being really diverse in all different kinds of shops. You run the gauntlet, you can get anything.”

One of the artistic displays vital to Lenny and Me's ambiance. Credit: Maria Cannata

While visual displays can help bring and keep customers, some shoppers say these techniques don’t influence their choices.

“I like the older quality of vintage clothes,” said Constance Longmoore. “The presentation of things and economy haven’t affected my decisions it’s just about personalizing my style.”

Wicker Park resident Deanna Paulson agrees saying that her shopping changes with the economy since “you can walk one way and buy a $500 jacket from Marc Jacobs and two stores later you can buy a leather coat from the 70’s for $30.”

Customers aren’t the only ones taking advantage of Wicker Park’s selection during the economy. Bonnie and Clyde’s owner Stephen Naparstek has found ways to put a positive spin on a grim time.

“I think the financial issue the US has been having the past two years has forced us to work smarter,” said Naparstek. “It’s provided us with the opportunity to go to more advanced lines that normally wouldn’t give us the time or opportunity because they already had their foot in Chicago and now they’re looking for new and different things as well.”

Listen to Naparstek’s full interview below:

Bonnie and Clyde’s expanded their lines into unisex clothing to set them apart from other stores and place emphasis on the “individual” instead of gender.

Bonnie and Clyde's features local art along with unisex clothing lines in their boutique. Credit: Maria Cannata

The boutique also uses another tool to cut costs and keep business thriving: nontraditional advertising.

Bonnie and Clyde’s is one of many independent businesses using global advertising agency USCENE to target customers virally. The global agency focuses on supporting independent businesses and promoting their boutique image in low cost ways.

Chicago UNSCENE Principal Christoph Gauspohl believes in his work because of the impact he’s seen local business have on communities like Wicker Park.

“Most people have no clue that in their simple everyday decisions they have the power to affect the survival of independent businesses as we know it,” said Gauspohl. “It is proven that when money is spent at a local business, the majority of the money stays within that community.”

Naparstek agrees with Gauspohl’s take stressing that “it keeps Wicker Park the focal point for the arts in Chicago” despite difficult financial times.

Some Wicker Park boutiques working with UNSCENE have taken advantage of these opportunities by focusing on social media. With new technology available there are many new ways in which stores can promote their products.

Stores like Bonnie and Clyde’s use blogging and social media to reach new customers about their clothing and art. Others are a little more hesitant.

“I’ve never used Twitter or any of that stuff to be honest,” admits Una Mae employee Nick Johnson. “We should more than we do. Out of necessity I think we’ll have to start using that social media. I look forward to more of that happening in the future.”

With reports indicating economy trends “pointing towards more of the same in the coming months”, social media will play a large role in businesses trying to outlast the hard times. However bleak the future may look, Gauspohl remains confident those that possess the right qualities will make it through.

“Anyone can be successful in a bad economy,” said Gauspohl. “It just takes an awareness, perserverance, and innovation to the weather the storms. It takes those who are able to adapt, switch gears, and open up opportunities for new fresh energy.”

However, there still remains one position open in the starting lineup on the Bulls’ roster. Deciding who will start alongside Derrick Rose, Luol Deng, Joakim Noah and Carlos Boozer has spurred friendly competition.

Click on the audio below for more, then vote on the poll.