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The parking lot at the NovaCare Complex last Saturday morning was filled with cars, but the large, white practice facility appeared quiet in the offseason. Just past 10, high-pitched cheers broke the wintery air.
Though there were no practicing players on the field at Broad Street and Pattison Avenue, almost 200 diehard fans were grooving to the sounds of “Let’s Do It” by the Black Eyed Peas and cheering and jeering each other through football drills. The gathering was the first wave of people who had bused in from just about every where for the fourth annual Eagles Academy for Women.
“We really get people from all over. I think one time someone had come in from Arizona,” Mike Malo, the football team’s director of marketing, said.
This year was no different as the first round of the two-day event kicked off with women of all ages, outfitted head-to-toe in Eagles green, smiling and snapping pictures.
“I’m from D.C.,” Melissa Wenzel said. “I’m a big Eagles fan. I found out about this on their Web site. I’m [originally] from the Northeast. I’m actually here with my sister. She’s over there [on the bench] because she just had knee surgery so she can’t do [the field skills] part.”
Though Wenzel was a first-timer, warming up across the field was a mother-daughter pair from Lancaster who had some idea of what to expect.
“This is our fourth one,” Danette Harmon, 49, said. “It’s fun and I’m an Eagles junkie. I check their Web site every day.”
Next to her in a personalized jersey, daughter Kimberly, 22, admitted she was a fan, as well, but not exactly of the same caliber: “Ya, well, growing up with her …”
“ … She’s said her earliest memories from when she was 3, 4 would be spending Sundays watching football,” Danette finished, “but she’s marrying a Cowboys fan and it’s just killing me.”
While the majority of participants had made the trip in from around the area, including Jersey, as well Delaware and Bucks counties, local roots were represented.
“We thought it would be something fun to do together,” 26-year-old Jamie Lynn Galasso of Eighth and Reed streets, said of her coworker outing. “It’s fun. It’s interesting. I don’t follow [football] really. I know the basics, like what a down is, but I’m learning more about football.”
Though another participant, Joann Clark, had to drive in from her Cherry Hill, N.J., home, the 10th-and-Porter streets native enjoyed the trip back to her old stomping grounds.
“I watch the Eagles all the time, but I’m learning about the plays we watch, learning things all the time,” the 49-year-old said of the Academy.
The day began with 6abc broadcaster Jamie Apody, who has been with the station as a sports anchor and reporter for four years, talking about locker-room etiquette, no-dating rules and being a woman in a man’s world.
“The players treat me with respect,” Apody said. “The locker room, though, it’s not a comfortable place to be for me.”
The slightly less than 200 women who were there for day one set the tone, asking questions about the locker room and booing Apody when she said she passed on an eight-day work trip to Phillies’ spring training in Clearwater, Fla., because, “I didn’t want to miss my boyfriend.”
From there, the group was divided and the women embarked on a five-hour rotation that included classroom instruction on defense, offense, special teams and scouting and a field skills portion of catching footballs, throwing for accuracy, kicking field goals and a female-friendly version of a blocking drill. Classroom instruction was given by current staff and alumni of the Eagles, including Troy Vincent, Doug Pederson, Mike Miller, Jeff Nixon and Mike Caldwell.
“We have about a 35 to 40 percent return each year, so we try to offer something different,” Malo said of repeat participants. “We had a training portion once, an officiating class.”
This year’s addition — scouting — talked about draft-day logistics, how the team ranks prospective players and who makes the decisions. One class, when told many potential players flex their biceps to impress scouts, asked if they could accompany the group on the next outing.
A huge draw, in addition to the information given and the personal tour of the practice complex, was the chance to meet players. Over the two days, longsnapper Jon Dorenbos, linebackers Omar Gaither and Akeem Jordan and safety Quintin Demps helped the ladies hone their football talents.
“I think it’s cool that women want to take an active role in learning about football. I’m sure their husbands or boyfriends appreciate it,” Dorenbos said from the NovaCare practice field. “[I hope they learn today] that it’s not just a bunch of meatheads running around. You have to have intelligence to play this game; it’s like chess.
“When they leave here, I hope they see that we are a family. We are very passionate about our team. And when they leave, I hope they feel like they are a part of the team.”
The day was broken up by lunch in the team’s cafeteria featuring a gourmet spread of cheeseburgers, sandwiches, a fully stocked salad bar, grilled chicken, rice, cookies, brownies, fresh fruit and chips.
Those not of the female persuasion will be happy to know the Eagles Junior Combine will take place March 19 to 21 and the men’s version of last week’s festivities will unfold in late spring.
“We started with the Women’s [Academy] and they kept saying, ‘Oh, my husband would love to come to this.’ And some even started bringing their husbands to the women’s one. So we listened to our fans and made the Eagles Academy for Men,” Malo said of last year’s male-version debut.
Being with the team for four years, Malo agrees there is a unique brand of fan for the Eagles — as evidenced in Saturday morning’s glowing faces of teenagers and senior citizens alike who had put on Sunday’s finest for the chance to experience a small part of their favorite team.
“There are amazing fans in Philadelphia,” Malo said. “They make my job easy.”
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