December 15, 2007
- Latoya
is 26 and from Toledo, Ohio. She is a sports fanatic. In
her spare time Latoya loves to play her XBOX and listen to R&B.
When she was 9, Latoya started dribbling a basketball. During
a summer sports program at University of Toledo she added track.
By the time she was in High School she got involved in basketball,
track, and cross country.
Latoya has “technically” been on
the Spitfire roster for 2 years, but has actually played for 1 full
season and 1 game. Her first season was 2006. She saw a
game on TV in 2005 but school and work kept her from doing anything
about playing. She didn’t think about it again for several
months and when she did she looked up the Toledo Spitfire website.
Information told her that they would be holding a mini-camp the very
next day. She did not hesitate to grab $35 and a water bottle
to go see what it was all about.
The more Latoya practices and plays
now, the more she is drawn to the game. She has a tendency to
be hard on herself and her biggest challenge is to channel all of
that and make herself a better player. Coach Val is impressed
with her ability to understand the concepts and general schemes.
One of her best moments, may be one
of her least favorite. In her rookie season against Milwaukee
a 34 Blast was called. Latoya was to get the ball and run it
up the middle. The ball was snapped, she took the ball, and
landed smack on the ground while the ball flew up 10 feet in the
air. It was unfortunate that Milwaukee got the turn over, but
even worse was the ribbing she took for how high the ball flew.
She also has a dirty little secret: Latoya loves to play football in
the mud.
Many of her favorite football
memories have to do with practicing or playing in the mud. One of
those was a practice in which she was covered and it was messy but
somehow she still found her way into the end zone. Then there was
the exhibition game against Ft. Wayne in 2006 that had multiple
overtimes, she was covered in mud down one side of her uniform, had
it inside her helmet down her face and still she came through to
score the winning touchdown.
Latoya says one of the best
feelings is to make those big plays and really come through for the
team. In the end what makes Latoya the proudest is to know that
her teammates respect her. In one game, while she was being
attended to for an injury, she overheard her teammates talking about
how she never quits. They all agreed they needed to work just
as hard as she does. They needed to not give up and give their
all as well.
Hearing her character described as
such made her feel that it was all worth it – all the practices, the
suicides, the mud, and even misleading her parents. Latoya didn’t
tell her parents right away that she was playing football because
they thought she was crazy to want to (don’t your parents?).
When she finally told them they accepted it and even made it to a
game or two.
