July 25, 2025<\/a><\/p>\nWindrem and Shawna Vollema worked the sticks alongside Lori Turski (downsbox operator) and Laura McKenzie (lone pole). Tatrina Medvescek and Kathy Williams served as ball girls. Emma Sharp and Allexxa Diab worked as ball coordinators. And Emily Clarke served as the penalty coordinator.<\/p>\n
\u201cI kind of thought this was going to be something quiet,\u201d says Clarke, who is working a full schedule this season as a CFL official. \u201cI didn\u2019t expect TSN to be waiting for us with cameras and that sort of thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope a lot of people took note of how many ponytails were out on the field.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Clarke, football firsts are nothing new.<\/p>\n
In 2019, Clarke and Georgina Paull made history as the first female officials to work a CFL game. In 2022, Clarke became the first woman to officiate a CFL playoff game. And a year later, she ran out onto the field as first female head referee in USports Football.<\/p>\n
The firsts keep coming with Clarke serving in May as the first female head referee in a USports East-West Bowl.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wait for the day where this just becomes the norm and it doesn\u2019t get talked about,\u201d says Clarke, who also works as a substitute teacher in the Bow Valley west of Calgary and as a coach with the Lake Louise Ski Club. \u201cBut until there\u2019s more of us, I think It\u2019s great to see the visibility and have this noted and on the radar for people.\u201d<\/p>\n
The idea for the all-female support crew started to percolate when Windrem asked if it might be possible to work the sticks for the first time at the CFL level Montreal-Calgary game.<\/p>\n
(Windrem lives in Whitby, Ont., and her association is not affiliated with a CFL team.)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
That got Clarke thinking. With so many officials in town for U18 Women\u2019s National Championships, maybe they could fill out the whole crew with women?<\/p>\n
The idea received full support from Boris Velcic (Calgary\u2019s game day supervisor) and Darren Hackwood (VP, CFL Officiating), along with referee Ritchie Miller and the on-field crew.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Calgary Stampeders\u2019 equipment manager, George Hopkins, came over and said, \u2018This is fantastic,\u2019\u201d Clarke said of the on-field reaction to the all-female crew.\u00a0 \u201cA couple of our guys who are usually ball boys \u2014\u00a0they were helping coordinate running all the footballs in and out \u2014 commented, `The players were handing you the ball. They were picking it up off the ground and giving it to you.\u2019 They\u2019re like, \u2018They don\u2019t normally do that for us.\u2019 We got a laugh out of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Clarke\u2019s ideal world, that special night in Calgary will lead to more women joining Paul, Sharon Aiery and herself as on-field officials in the CFL.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope seeing that puts the idea in any young girl\u2019s head, and even older women as well,\u201d says Clarke. \u201cThere\u2019s an opportunity there, and you can go and jump in at any level \u2014 right from the grassroots \u2014 and be a part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
I first started covering the CFL in 2001 as a beat writer for The Edmonton Journal.\u00a0 Back then, I rarely saw any women working in the game outside of the odd reporter, the cheerleaders and the office staff.<\/p>\n
These days, they\u2019re everywhere \u2014\u00a0coaches, football operations staff, officials and, now, an all-female support crew.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s about what you leave behind \u2014\u00a0your legacy,\u201d Windrem says. \u201cWhat are people going to think about you when you die? And I know for me, I want to make a difference.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m Black.\u00a0I want all girls \u2014\u00a0but Black girls as well \u2014\u00a0to know they can achieve anything.\u201d<\/p>\n