The Winnipeg Wolfpack are a women's football club 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) Prairie Conference. The Wolfpack are based in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Team history

The Wolfpack were loosely organized for a number of years before the formulation of the WWCFL in 2011. Playing out of Nomads Field and affiliated with the Nomads Football Club, where a number of the women coached boys teams, the Wolfpack (at the time stylized as "Wolf Pack") would occasionally travel to Alberta to compete against the Edmonton Storm, Calgary Rockies, and

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 ...

; those three teams together formed the Alberta Female Football League in 2011, the first move to establish stronger organization for women's football in western Canada. The Wolf Pack also traveled to play the Minnesota Vixen in the United States. With the establishment of the WWCFL in 2011, the club formally established the North Winnipeg Nomads Wolf Pack to compete in the new league's Prairie Conference along with their crosstown rivals, the

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 ...

, and new teams in Regina and Saskatoon. The team was coached by Richard Dudeck and former Winnipeg Blue Bombers Mike Hameluck and Glen Schapansky. Winnipeg was winless in the WWCFL's inaugural season, dropping both of its games against the Fearless. The team opted to forfeit its first-round playoff match against the Saskatoon Valkyries, having lost the regular season match-up by a score of 78–6. However, the Wolfpack quickly improved and consistently got the best of their local rivals over the next six seasons, finishing below Manitoba in the standings only once. They lost their first playoff match, against 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 ...

, in 2012. Although the Wolfpack went undefeated against the Fearless for three-straight seasons from 2013 to 2015, they found themselves unable to advance past either Regina or Saskatoon in the playoffs as those two teams captured each season's WWCFL Championship. A bright spot for the Wolfpack was the play of young players like, Alexa Matwyczuk, who quit the wolfpack in the 2013 season and did not play that year. Was one of three members of the club named to the Canadian national team ahead of the

2013 IFAF Women's World Championship The 2013 IFAF Women's World Championship was the second IFAF Women's World Championship, an American football competition for women. It took place between 30 June and 6 July 2013. The tournament was hosted at the ISS Stadion in Vantaa, Finland. T ...

, and Breanne Ward, one of five members of the Wolfpack who joined

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 ...

in 2017. The Wolfpack hosted the WWCFL Championship in 2015 at IG Field. In the game, the Riot won their first WWCFL title, defeating the Storm by a score of 53–6. The Wolfpack have struggled in recent years, failing to win a game in four straight seasons as the Fearless gained the upper hand in the local rivalry, even advancing to the WWCFL Championship Final for the first time in 2022. The Wolfpack paused operations ahead of the 2024 WWCFL season.

Year by year

IFAF competitors

The following lists women from the Winnipeg Wolfpack 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.

References

{{Manitoba Sports Women's sports in Canada Canadian football teams in Winnipeg Women in Manitoba Sports clubs and teams established in 2011 2011 establishments in Manitoba

Team history

Year by year

IFAF competitors

See also

References