Pittsburgh Passion owner Teresa Conn was happy when the Women’s Football Alliance chose to rename the league’s championship trophy in 2023 for former Steelers running back Franco Harris.
Conn hoped the Passion would be able to honor Harris, who became a co-owner of the Passion in 2011, by winning the trophy named after him. Following several years of close calls, Pittsburgh will play for a championship for the first time since 2015 when it takes on the Minnesota Vixen at 6 p.m. Saturday at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton, Ohio.
Harris died in 2022, but his wife, Dana Dokmanovich, and his son, Dok, have remained involved with the team.
“It would be special to hand the trophy to Dana and Dok,” Conn said. “What makes it special to us is the league named the trophy for Franco. The Hall of Fame has welcomed us with open arms and we have some space up there. Franco had a lot to do with opening doors for us.”
The Passion, who won the East Region with a 7-1 record, lost one step short of the championship game in 2022, 2024 and 2025.
Pittsburgh’s roster is full of players who are eager to sacrifice for the game.
Passion linebacker Cameron Roofner sleeps whenever — and wherever — she can. Roofner, a second-year player for the Passion, works the second shift driving trains at ATI Natrona Heights Operations.
Roofner, who drives 74 miles to work round trip from her Clarion County home in East Brady, added an additional 124-mile round trip to Sto-Rox High School to practice football.
“I find that I’m a lot more tired,” Roofner said. “I will just fall asleep in a chair when I’m at home, sometimes on my break at work. I just try to sleep when I can. When I finish work, I sleep for a few hours, then I’m off to football practice.”
Pittsburgh, which played its first season in 2002, has won three titles in its history. The Passion won back-to-back crowns in the Independent Women’s Football League in 2014-15 and in 2007 in the National Women’s Football Alliance.
“We lost by one point in the semifinals last year,” said Roofner, who is a Karns City graduate. “We were up by three touchdowns and lost. That motivated us to come back this year.”
Minnesota (7-1), which finished first in the Central Region, is another long-standing program hungry for a championship. The Vixen, who played their first season in 1999, have yet to win a national title, losing in the final in 2018, 2021 and 2022.
Minnesota coach Connor Jo Lewis said the Vixen still have some holdovers from the last team that reached the final.
“We have roughly 10-15 players and coaches who experienced it in 2021 and 2022,” Lewis said. “All of us are excited to share that experience with new members of our team, staff and players.”
Lewis said that Minnesota benefitted from having four players come over from the now-defunct Nebraska Stampede. Running back Tiff Wright, safety Britt Peterson, linebacker Alicia Noble and defensive end Ang Bennett have made major contributions while making a long commute to play the Vixen.
Wright, Noble and Bennett all still live in the Omaha area, while Peterson commutes in from Des Moines, Iowa.
“They’ve put a lot of miles on the tires,” Lewis said. “They are at one practice a week, if not two. They’ve made a strong commitment to the team, and they made sure they were here and meant business.”
The Passion broke through to the final by beating their longtime rival, the DC Divas, 35-23, in the conference final. Pittsburgh is led by quarterback Makai Chavez, a Punxsutawney native who is in her fourth season with the Passion and was named the WFA National Conference MVP in 2024.
Chavez said they are determined to win another trophy.
“I think there really isn’t an option for us when it comes to this game,” Chavez said. “We’ve worked hard to get here. I think it’s going to be our determination, resilience and how we respond to adversity that will help us win. It’ll be controlled chaos, but we know how to manage that.”
Conn credited the defense, led by co-defensive coordinators Kim Zubovic and Dylan Neal, with helping put the team on a championship track. The Passion defense is anchored by defensive tackle Kaitlain Niedermeyer, a Brentwood native, who has played for the team for 15 seasons.
Lewis is excited to see how the two historic franchises match up. Minnesota has an assistant coach, AJ Haeg, who used to play for the Passion.
“We have a lot of similarities,” Lewis said. “We both used to play in the IWFL. It’s nice to see new teams rise and get those opportunities. Beyond championship weekend, in our conference, there wasn’t a clear favorite to who was going to win in the playoffs.”