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, founded in 2008. Their local WWCFL rivals are the Winnipeg Wolfpack.

Three members of the Fearless were part of the inaugural WWCFL board. Together, Fearless founder Tannis Wilson and former-GM Lisa Cummings founded the Manitoba Girls Football Association.

Team history

The Fearless were founded in Winnipeg in 2008. Founder Tannis Wilson had traveled to Alberta after a women's team was founded in Calgary, and returned to Winnipeg with the goal of founding a club there. The Fearless spent several years traveling to play exhibition matches against teams in Alberta, as well as against the Minnesota Vixen. They also invited teams to play in Winnipeg and played some of their games in Brandon, Manitoba. In 2011, the Fearless became a charter member of the WWCFL, joining the Prairie Conference along with three new teams: The Winnipeg Nomads Wolfpack, the Saskatoon Valkyries, and the Regina Riot. Wilson was instrumental in the formation of the new league, and served as its first commissioner.

The close proximity of the new Wolfpack team ensured the creation of a lasting rivalry between the two Winnipeg-based teams, but both found themselves consistently at the bottom of the Prairie Conference standings as the Valkyries and Riot dominated the new league. In the inaugural season, the Fearless opted to forfeit their first-round playoff match against the Riot. The Valkyries won the first four WWCFL championships before the Riot won their first in 2015, the two Saskatchewan-based teams losing only to each other. The Fearless came close to breaking through in the 2018 playoffs when they lost a tight quarterfinal match to Saskatoon by a score of 16–13. A breakthrough finally came in 2019 when the Fearless were able to defeat the Riot 34–9 in Regina on 5 May. It was Manitoba's first win over Regina in ten tries. The win helped Manitoba finish 2nd in the Prairie Conference standings for the first time; however, they lost a re-match to Regina in the playoff Quarterfinals.

The progress of the Fearless was put on hold for two years as the WWCFL cancelled both the 2020 and 2021 seasons due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the Fearless took a major step when the league resumed play in 2022. They again beat Regina during the regular season and finished 2nd in the Prairie Conference. This time, they managed to get past Regina in the playoffs, defeating the Riot 20–13. They went on to advance to their first WWCFL championship game. In the final, they lost to the Valkyries by a score of 36–6.

Year by year

IFAF competitors

The following lists women from the Manitoba Fearless who have competed in the IFAF Women's World Championship as members of Team Canada.

See also

* Women's gridiron football

References

{{Manitoba Sports

Canadian football
Sport in Manitoba
Women's sports in Canada
Canadian football teams in Manitoba
2007 establishments in Manitoba
Women in Manitoba
Sports clubs and teams established in 2007