The Calgary Rage are a women's football team in the

Western Women's Canadian Football League The Western Women's Canadian Football League (WWCFL) is a full-contact women's Canadian football league which began play in the spring of 2011. The league plays an annual season in the spring or summer, and with eight teams it is the largest wome ...

's (WWCFL) Western Conference. They are based in

Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, makin ...

, Alberta.

Team history

The team was first founded as the Calgary Rockies in 2009, and played exhibition games against the Edmonton Storm and

Manitoba Fearless The Manitoba Fearless are a women's football team in the Western Women's Canadian Football League's (WWCFL) Prairie Conference. The team is based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and is the longest running Winnipeg-based women's tackle football team, founde ...

. In 2010, the Rockies, Storm, and the newly founded

Lethbridge Steel The Lethbridge Steel are a women's football team in the Western Women's Canadian Football League's (WWCFL) Western Conference. The team is based in Lethbridge, Alberta. Team history The Steel were founded in 2010 and joined the Edmonton Storm ...

joined together to form the Alberta Female Football League (AFFL), which played for one season. In 2011, the Rockies changed their name to the Calgary Rage, and the AFFL was absorbed by the WWCFL, which included the Fearless and new teams in Winnipeg, Regina, and Saskatoon. The WWCFL began play in 2011 with seven teams in two conferences, with the three Alberta-based teams competing in the Western Conference. The Rage got off to a slow start, winning just six games in their first five seasons and getting eliminated by their rivals from Edmonton in the playoffs each year they qualified. They had a breakthrough season in 2017, posting an undefeated record through the regular season, finishing atop the Western Conference for the first time and proceeding all the way to the WWCFL Championship final, where they faced the

Regina Riot The On-to-Ottawa Trek was a mass protest movement in Canada in 1935 sparked by unrest among unemployed single men in federal relief camps principally in Western Canada. Federal relief camps were brought in under Prime Minister R. B. Bennett’s ...

. They lost the final by a score of 53–0. They were again eliminated from contention by the Riot in 2018 after the league adopted a cross-conference playoff format. The Rage posted a fourth consecutive winning season in 2019, but lost to the Steel in the first round of the playoffs. The WWCFL cancelled its 2020 and 2021 seasons due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. However, when play resumed in 2022, the Rage picked up where they left off and continued to post winning records. The team also changed its recruitment strategy, and consequently saw its roster grow from 25 players in 2022 to 43 in 2023. After being eliminated in the Semi-Final in 2022 by the Fearless, the Rage posted their second undefeated season and made their second trip to the WWCFL Championship in 2023. They were again shut out in the title match, this time by the

Saskatoon Valkyries The Saskatoon Valkyries are a women's football team in the Western Women's Canadian Football League's (WWCFL) Prairie Conference. The team is based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. They are the most successful WWCFL team, winning eight of the leagues ...

Year by year

IFAF competitors

The following lists women from the Calgary Rage who have competed in the

IFAF Women's World Championship The IFAF Women's World Championship is the international championship for women in American football. The first event was held in 2010, in Stockholm, Sweden, with six countries competing. The United States took home the gold while not letting an ...

as members of

Team Canada Canadian National Team or Team Canada may refer to: Canada at multi-sport events * Canada at the Olympics * Canada at the Paralympics * Canada at the Commonwealth Games * Canada at the Pan American Games Canada's national sport teams * Canada me ...

Community involvement

Many Rage players volunteer as ushers at

Calgary Stampeders The Calgary Stampeders are a professional Canadian football team based in Calgary, Alberta. The Stampeders compete in the West Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL). The club plays its home games at McMahon Stadium and are the third-old ...

home games. More players are getting involved with coaching around Calgary with different levels of programs ranging from pee-wee football to high school. On 1 September, 2013, several members of the Rage roster participated in the Calgary Pride Parade.

References

{{Alberta Sports

Rage Rage may refer to: * Rage (emotion), an intense form of anger Games * Rage (collectible card game), a collectible card game * Rage (trick-taking card game), a commercial variant of the card game Oh Hell * ''Rage'' (video game), a 2011 first-per ...

Women's sports in Canada Women in Alberta 2009 establishments in Alberta Sports clubs and teams established in 2009

Team history

Year by year

IFAF competitors

Community involvement

See also

References