Women's Football News
The (Secret) Life of a Scientist: Tackling more than stem cells

by Tom Ulrich, VectorBlog.org, August 19, 2011

Lab photo by VectorBlog.org
Uniform Photo by Threepairs Photography

When she's not tackling the work of keeping a lab running smoothly, Beth Kaleta tackles other people for the offensive line of the Boston Militia, an all women's tackle football team and winners of this year's WFA national championship.

Every day, Beth Kaleta comes to her job in George Daley's laboratory at Children's Hospital Boston to do the things a lab manager and research technician does: maintain equipment, prep reagents, check inventories, adjust budgets — all the things that keep a stem cell lab running smoothly.

But after work, three or four days a week, she travels to a stadium in Somerville, dons pads and a helmet, and takes her place on the offensive line – as a right guard with the Boston Militia, an all-women's tackle football team.

In July, Kaleta helped the Militia win the Women's Football Alliance (WFA) national championship. That's no small feat; the WFA is a professional women's football league, essentially the women's version of the NFL.

"We play tackle football just like the guys do," Kaleta says. "It's been very exciting and very involved. It's basically another full time job outside of the hospital, just not one that I get paid for. But it's also a chance for me to play a sport that traditionally has only been for men, and to shine doing it."

Read Tom Ulrich's full article at VectorBlog.org.