“We want people to know we are here.”
Mississippi Royalty team owner Tyre Brown has worked tirelessly to get the word out about the state’s first tackle women’s football team based in Hattiesburg.
“We are in the Women’s Football Alliance (WFA). It is the world’s largest women’s tackle league and is based in America. The league has been around for over 13 years and there are around 65 teams in the entire league,” said Brown.
“There are three divisions in the league, Division One, Two, and Three. Our team based out of Hattiesburg is known as the Mississippi Royalty. This is our third year of being established. In our first and second season, we were a very dominant team.”
In their inaugural season, the Royalty went 5-1 in regular-season play and made it to the semi-final game in Division Three play. In year two they posted an 8-2 regular-season record.
The Royalty has gone through coaching staff changes in 2020 and the team is currently looking for recruits who want to participate.
“We’ve gone through a coaching change at this point, so now we are looking for additional recruits to help build the program into what we were prior. This year is different due to COVID, but we want to take this year to recruit and make the community of what we have going on right here.”
We typically recruit former athletes and former local athletes. We take any of these people with an athletic experience and turn that into a football experience. Right now, we have a small team, but we desire to have a roster of about 35 ladies. The most we have had is 28 ladies on the roster,” said Brown.
Due to the success of the Mississippi Royalty, the Gulf Coast Monarchy was formed and is anticipating its first season.
“God has blessed us with success, because of that, we have a sister team named the Gulf Coast Monarchy. They are preparing for their first season. We also have a team moving into Mobile. We are moving with this empowerment,” explained Brown.
The Royalty plays their home contests at local high schools in Hattiesburg, with their home field and practices held at San Antonio Field in Hattiesburg.
“Typically, we try to play at local high schools. We’ve been able to play at Petal High School and Hattiesburg High School. We practice at San Antonio Field and Tatum Park, but our goal is to play at the local high schools. Our primary field where we do everything else is typically at San Antonio Field.”
After their first season that featured six regular-season games, the Royalty has moved to an eight-game schedule when the season returns.
“We have four home games and four away games. We don’t start until April, so all of the other leagues and high school games are through. We play from April until June, in July, there is the WFA Championship. Our goal is to get the 2021 bid for the championship and possibly host it at the University of Southern Mississippi.” explained Brown. “That’s what we foresee doing in the next couple of years. That would be over 60 teams to the Hattiesburg area.”
“We want people to see that women are playing football. That’s my goal during this time with COVID halting other things, I want to promote women’s tackle football.”
