Family:
Erickson comes from a North Attleboro family. Her dad worked for Balfour Company, the jewelry maker. She was the youngest of seven sisters. "It was like having seven mothers," she says.
Job:
Erickson works in day care. She's site care director at North Attleboro's Community School. Hired by the city's Hockomock YMCA's "School's Out" program, Erickson and two assistants take care of about 30 kids in first through fifth grade before and after classes.
Erickson is at the school at 7 a.m. "A lot of parents have to be at work by 7," she explains, "so they drop their kids off at the school. I'm with them until classes start at 9. I have them after school, too, between 2:30 and 6."
Gofer:
While the kids work on their ABCs, Erickson scoots over to another job. "From 9 to 1, I'm helping out David with his business," she says. David Packert is an architect who runs a home design business. He's also Erickson's fiance. "I take care of the office odds and ends," she says.
Gridiron Girl:
In April, Erickson will be wearing another hat -- a football helmet, actually.
Erickson plays with the Bay State Warriors, a full tackle, professional women's football team. The Warriors is part of the Independent Women's Football League. The IWFL season opens on April 20, when the Warriors take on the New Hampshire Freedom in Manchester.
Erickson's a strong safety on the team. All done up in her Warriors uniform, Erickson -- who's a svelte 145 pounds off-field -- looks like a puffed up Pillsbury Doughboy. The protective gear weighs in at 15 pounds, the helmet alone accounting for 10 pounds of it.
In uniform, Erickson is a mean-looking woman. Which is the way it's supposed to be. "I have to look big and mean," she says. "I have to scare the other team. Believe me, I played against a couple of players last year that scared me."
This is Erickson's second season in pro football. Last year, she played strong safety with the New England Storm. That squad was part of the Women's Professional Football League. All told, there are seven leagues in women's professional football, with the teams ranging from New England to as far away as Hawaii.
Erickson loves the cartilage-crunching world of pro ball. "I like going out there and hitting people," she says. "On a good day I can get in eight tackles. The crowd goes crazy when you do something good -- like hitting somebody hard. They cheer for you."
No paycheck:
Erickson doesn't get paid for playing football. The leagues are nonprofit and, right now, depend on money from sponsors to operate. "There's not enough money to pay us a salary," Erickson says. "But, remember, when men's professional leagues first started up, there was no money to pay them, either. They all had second jobs, too."
Practice time:
Monday and Wednesday nights, Erickson travels to South Boston for practice. The sessions last two hours. "I get home about 11:30. I shower. I eat. It's sometimes rough to get up the next morning at 6:30."
Ouch, that hurts:
Last year, Erickson suffered an injury, mangling her right knee, at the start of the season. Incredibly, she told no one and just kept on playing. "I didn't want to lose the chance to play," she explains. The knee's since undergone a successful operation.
Ad in the paper:
Erickson didn't know that such a thing as women's professional football existed until she saw a small newspaper advertisement about it. "They were looking for women to play," she says. "So I checked out their Web site. Even though I had just turned 31, it sounded challenging and I decided to go for it."
Erickson recalls going to tryouts: "Even though it was football, no one laughed at me because I was a woman. We were all women. and it was something new and exciting. And it was a chance to take my love of sports up a notch and be considered a professional."
Golden girl:
Erickson started playing sports at age 7 for the North Attleboro Little League, which was then an all-boy institution. "My father signed me up," she recalls. "With my first name, they couldn't tell my gender. When I show up, they just had to deal with me." Erickson was the first girl ever to play in the Little League.
Sports became her thing. By the time she was 12, she had played on 18 teams. " I played everything -- basketball, soccer, volleyball, softball, baseball. She was also a top athlete at Franklin's Tri-County Regional Vocational Technical High School.
Once-in-a-lifetime:
Says Erickson: "There are a lot of women who want to play sports on the highest level. Right now, this league is the highest level. I'll be looking on my experiences for a long time."
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