Up to three times she was expelled from the competition for being a woman, and in each and every one of them she returned willing to be allowed to play.
100 stories, 100 yards
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Patricia Meixide (39) tells me.
–One fine day, my friend Mònica Rafecas told me: ‘You have to come see me.’
–Let’s see him, doing what?
–Mònica played American football for the Barberà Rookies. She was the quarterback. I was already a physiotherapist (she worked and works at the Parc Taulí hospital in Sabadell) and I was curious about what she did. Mònica is tiny, she knows? And I thought they would kill her.
-And what happened?
–Seen from the outside, that seemed brutal to me. At one point during the game, Mònica’s finger came out of place and she came running to ask me to put it back in place.
-And he did?
-I did it. And I sold it to him. And she continued playing. And insisting: ‘You have to try, you have to try.’ I told her yes, okay, let’s see if she would leave me alone. I came, I experienced military training. The technician told us: ‘If you are tired and want a sofa, you better go.’ I returned days later. They put the helmet and breastplate on me and already, I was hooked.
He looks back at the stadium.
We are in a room at the multipurpose Can Llobet, in its Barberà del Vallés. The Rookies, the best team in the women’s league, play here. They have won ten league titles. Patricia Meixide spends a good handful of afternoons here. Here she trains and lifts weights. She trains frequently.
It was not like this in the past.
Before, women’s American football was a utopia in our country. There was no tradition, means or knowledge.
There was no interest either.
Patricia Meixide offers me a name. She tells me about Roberto Torrecilla. In her opinion, the man was either a visionary, or a naïve, or both. That man who led the Rookies decided to lead the first Spanish women’s team.
The reader can imagine: Mònica Rafecas and Patricia Meixide were among their ranks.
–The team debuted in 2011. In that same year we went to the World Cup in Finland. It was a drama…
–¿…?
–We suffered terrible beatings, 50-0, things like that. And several players returned injured. We broke collarbones, rays, cruciate ligaments, Mònica broke her index finger. In some games we already doubled: one offensive team and another offensive team did not come out. We had eleven players available, they all played all the time. It didn’t really matter either: our attack wasn’t making any progress, so we were just defending ourselves.
–And they weren’t frustrated?
–Roberto Torrecilla had so much faith in himself that he said go ahead, that he would look for more coaches and physical trainers. He understood that it had been crazy but he didn’t give up. He began to organize rallies. We paid for them.
–¿…?
–It didn’t matter, because we loved it. And we were offered an exceptional window. I used to play basketball, but in basketball I would never have gone to a World Cup. Here, however…
–And did they compete outside again?
–In 2013 we hosted the European Championship in Granada. We scored some points there: against Sweden we lost 30-6. There was already some color in our game, although we were not competitive. Then we really started to grow.
And they grew so much, that this April they were proclaimed European champions…
–And what has changed?
–Our mix of veterans and young people is a success. Our technical and tactical level has improved and the young women have internalized the need for physical preparation. They all go to the gym.
–You didn’t do it?
–Ten years ago it was different. 10% of the players did it. And taking into account that the Spanish are much smaller than the Swedes, the Finns or the Americans… Although I don’t have much time left in the national team. That he left her already.
-Because?
–At the end of this month I will play my last game. I will do it against Sweden. I get up early, I work, I have to take care of the house. I train from Monday to Friday and on the weekend there is almost always a game. I think there has been enough.
