HILLSDALE, N.J.—Michele Carcich DeVincenzo observed “a few amazing things resulted from my last-minute decision to join a flag football team as a 42 year old woman.”
The obvious, she said: Her team, the Hillsdale Lady Hawks, collected almost $2,000 and a pickup truck full of food donations for the Helping Hand Food Pantry. The opposition, the Montvale Cowgirls, collected $3,000 and a truck food of food donations for the Tri-Boro Food Pantry.
And the score was 34–0, Hillsdale.
But “the not so obvious,” she said online: “I had a reason to get my outta shape in some sort of shape; it felt amazing to be part of a team again and to be coached. After all these years of coaching to was nice to be on the other side of things; I met an incredible group of fierce competitors from town I never knew; and I learned a sport I didn’t know much about.”
She said, “I remembered how intense and exhilarating game day can be.”
“As I looked around the field I saw so many of the little girls that were there supporting their mommies, having a catch and running routes with their friends,” she said.
“It was such an amazing feeling as a woman watching these girls feel comfortable enough to pick up a and enjoy playing a ‘guys’ sport,’” she added.
DeVincenzo, a teacher and coach at River Dell Regional School District, and a marketing director, added, “I hope that afternoon everyone realized two things: You can do anything you want if you put your mind to it, and you’re never to old to compete (just make sure you warm up first).”
Hillsdale is now three for three, coached by Nick Pourakis, the Hawks having vanquished the Emerson Mamaliers in their first two throwdowns for charity, in 2018 and 2019.
With Emerson sitting this season out over covid concerns, Montvale filled out a roster to save the tradition and used the past month to practice.
(For more, see “Hillsdale, Montvale Moms Hit Gridiron for Charity,” Nov. 23.)
The teams met Friday, Nov. 27 at 11 a.m. at Fieldstone Middle School in Montvale. Entrance fee was a donated nonperishable food item. Twin GoFundMe campaigns raised money for supermarket gift cards and more.
Hillsdale’s Christine Lee ran “Hillsdale Moms 3rd Annual Flag Football Fundraiser.” Montvale’s Jillian Korn ran “Montvale Moms 1st Flag Football Fundraiser.”
The nonprofit Helping Hand Food Pantry, at Hillsdale United Methodist Church, serves Emerson, Hillsdale, Oradell, Montvale, River Vale, Washington Township, Westwood and Woodcliff Lake.
The nonprofit Tri-Boro Food Pantry at Pascack Reformed Church in Park Ridge feeds families from the Tri-Boro area and beyond.
Lady Hawk Irene Hancock—one of the annual game’s founders and organizers, along with Emerson’s Karen Oberg Borenius—told Pascack Press on Nov. 17 that the second annual matchup, in 2019, drew more than $1,200 in donations that filled her husband’s pickup truck.
Hancock gave a shout-out to Pourakis and said the goal this year was to have fun and raise even more for charity in entrance donations.
Hancock also said her team had been getting ready for battle. “We have like five new players. These girls are hard-core athletic-competitive, I don’t want to disclose everything but we definitely are working on our play strategy more than we did the last two years,” Hancock said.
She added, “We know the game and we’re conditioned. We’re going at this to win, but also to have fun.”
Montvale Cowgirls captain Alison Casey, a nurse at John Theurer Cancer Center in Hackensack, told Pascack Press before the game that her team was “super excited to play”—and a force to reckon with.
“We got like 17 ladies. We’ve been practicing since right after Halloween, we’re having a ball. My husband [Ryan Casey] is our coach,” she said.
Their daughters, 13 and 10, think this contest is “hilarious” but are cheering her on at practices, and Ryan, she said, is “getting his football out on all of us—he loves it.”
She added, “You’d never have thought that a bunch of moms would have some athletic ability—there’s some athletic ability there that’s pretty exciting to watch.”
She said, “We’re a young team but there’s obviously a lot of gusto, so everybody’s super exited, but then you’ve got a lot of talent, which is really fun.”
We asked one of our favorite local photographers, Danielle O’Brien, to shoot the game for us. What she sent back is wonderful.
