[Times photos: Thomas M. Goethe]
Members of the Tampa Tempest, Tampa's first professional women's football team, wait to run drills at a recent practice at MacDill Air Force Base.

By BABITA PERSAUD

TAMPA -- Tampa's first professional women's football team hasn't scored a point all season.

The Tampa Tempest has had league troubles, injury problems and a dwindling player count. Only four returned for this year's second season. Last year's record was 3-5.

Now, the team is down to 19 players, from 55. It's current record is 0-4.

Tampa Tempest players run a warmup lap before starting drills.

Still, it was a determined 19 who arrived early to one recent practice at a MacDill Air Force Base field. They ran laps, tackled each other and slammed into the tackling sled when the coach yelled "Explode!"

The sun was setting, but the players remained on the field.

"When I say I'm going to do something, I'm going to do it 110 percent, to the end," said defensive leader Lisa Martin-Manns.

"We're not giving up," said linebacker Danielle Parham. "Because the one thing we know we have is heart."

It's certainly not the pay: $100 a game.

When women's professional football began in Tampa last year, 350 women tried out at the University of South Florida; 1,200 attended the opening game.

Head coach Holly Dawn Hewlett was psyched. A tough-talking high school football player and former truck driver, she heard about the Women's Professional Football League while in Texas.

She arrived in Tampa two weeks later, head coach of the team.

"I felt (the league) needed a strong female presence that wouldn't cower to men, that wouldn't kiss men's a--es because that's where women's endeavors fail," she said.

In the first season, the Tempest won two games by forfeit. The team's third and real win came against the 4-week-old North Carolina Cougars. Final score: 8-6. The Tempest scored a touchdown in the last minute and four seconds.

It was an accomplishment. Some Tempest players had never even touched a football. Others had played recreationally.

There were a lot of rugby players on the team. One amateur boxer. By day, they were UPS managers, USF students, sales managers, massage therapists. Mothers of teenagers, fans of the Bucs, like Kimmy Mulla, No. 88, who says: "I'm tough."

And Heather Smith, No. 34, who says: "I love the competition. It's about looking at yourself in the mirror and saying I did good."

During the first season, the WPFL, created by sports promoters Terry Sullivan and Carter Turner, experienced management turmoil.

Ownership fell to an investment group, which then backed down. In June, coaches assembled to decide: Stay or go? The verdict was to stay and localize ownership.

The Tampa Tempest is now owned by Hewlett and four other women, including a warehouse forewoman and a paralegal.

The problem with localized ownership is there is no commission to oversee rules and no advertising buying power.

The WPFL, once 11 teams, is now down to seven.

League troubles affected Tampa players, and nearly half left to form their own professional touch football team, the Tampa Bay Force. Their games are held at Robinson High School.

"We know how to play football," said Karen Capps, Force head coach.

The Force plays for a new women's professional football league, the Women's American Football League, which formed last Spring and is operated by sports promoter Carter Turner, previous creator of the WPFL.

"It's been a soap opera," said Turner from his Daytona Beach office.

Meanwhile, Tempest players are losing steam.

Only 150 fans paid $15 each to attend the team's August 18th game against the New York Sharks, mostly family and friends.

They sat in metal stands at Leto High School, where Tempest home games are held. During halftime, the Bucs-Browns game played over the public address system. The Bucs lost. So did the Tempest, 25-0.

The Tempest quarterback was sacked constantly. The Sharks intercepted passes. Pep was down.

One Tempest fan tried to rev the crowd: "Make some noise!" she said.

Hardly a peep.

The Tempest players say they need sponsors to survive. Captain Lara Stachow dipped into her savings to fly the team to last Saturday's away game in Boston, which they lost, 41-0.

They also need players and are seeking athletes with "the right mind-set that we can educate and work toward becoming a team," said Hewlett.

And they are looking for support.

"We need to be given a chance just like the NFL was given a chance, just like arena football was given a chance," said Hewlett.

"We don't need people coming up to us and telling us we should quit," said Stachow, team captain.

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