MANCHESTER, NH – Following a 34-0 loss in Rochester, New York on June 8, the NH Rebellion women’s football team practiced at Saint Anselm College this week to prepare for their season finale at home against the New York Knockout. While at times the Rebellion has made sustained drives and good plays in their games, they have yet to win a game – except by forfeit against the Delaware Diamonds. –
Saturday’s game will feature a wedding – All-American running back Selina Collins and Brittnee Feldman, the team’s game day coordinator and player representative, will join together in marriage during a pregame ceremony. The game will start at 6:30 p.m. at West High School Field on Jack Amaro Way. Those who wish to witness the wedding are advised to arrive early.
Also playing in the game will be safety Julia Kearney, a resident of Vermont who is playing her first year with the team. She is currently a resident of Saint Johnsbury, a town in the northeast section of the state near Littleton, NH. She takes a two-hour drive- 125 miles each way- when she comes to Manchester. The distance to practice indoors during the winter is even longer. She lives sixty miles south of Canada.
Each practice is a commitment of at least six hours for her. She leaves two hours before practice starts, and arrives two hours after practice ends. That means if a practice ends at 9 p.m., as it did this past Thursday, she arrives home around 11 p.m. All of her free time during the evenings on practice days is dedicated to the team.
Kearney, 27, is entering her third year of coaching boys’s high school football at Saint Johnsbury Academy.
“I’m a high school varsity football coach,” Kearney said. “And a JV offensive coordinator. I actually just started summer workouts on Monday. It’s three days a week for the next six weeks.”
Her motivation to join the Rebellion and drive long distances each day was “her boys.” She wanted to play football for the kids she coaches in order to better understand their experiences on the field. As a kid, she had never been afforded the opportunity to play football. Now, with Rebellion, she has that chance.
“I wanted to be able to share in the experiences that the kids I coach have,” Kearney said. “This season has made me a better football coach for the kids I’m working with.”
During the day, when she is not involved with coaching or playing football, Kearney works as a personal trainer, a strength and conditioning coach, and the assistant director of her gym, called RecFit.
Thus far, Kearney has found the season, in her words, “A lot of fun. It’s been very much a learning curve. Every single thing that I’m doing, it is all about me learning. It’s all about learning, having a good time, being a good teammate and using this experience to take forward in my coaching career.”