Lawrence native making gains from financial district to football field

July 11, 2019

By Bill Burt | The Eagle Tribune

As a business professional working in the financial district of Boston, Stephanie Pascual is accustomed to the strange looks she often gets when she tells people she plays football.

“They say, ‘Do you play tag football?’ Or worse is, ‘or Lingerie Football?’ — like those girls in the bikinis,” she said. “That one really ticks me off.”

A Lawrence native, Pascual was a youth basketball star in high school at Proctor Academy and in college at Mount Holyoke. Nowadays, though, when she’s not working at a major asset management firm, she plays hard-nosed, tackle football with the Boston Renegades.

The undefeated team is headed to Golden, Colorado, for the third straight year to play in the Women’s Football Alliance national championship Saturday night.

“I grew up loving football, watching Patriots games on Sundays like everybody else,” said Pascual, who is the top wide receiver for the Renegades. “I played a lot of sports growing up,” she continued. “I was probably best at basketball, but I also started playing field hockey in college and liked that, too.”

Football didn’t come until later for 27-year-old Pascual. She learned about the women’s semi-pro tackle team from a friend. Three years ago she and her sister Angelica Pascual tried out. Both made the team.

“When we first saw Steph, we had her pegged as a linebacker,” said Renegades head coach John Johnson. “She was tough. She was strong. And she wasn’t very tall. She looked like a linebacker.”

But as the season wore on and Johnson saw Pascual playing receiver on the scout team, he realized his first impression was off.

“She got open every time,” Johnson recalled. “And she never dropped the ball. I’m like, ‘We need this girl on offense.'”

She’s been a Renegades wide receiver ever since, scoring eight touchdowns this spring and summer.

“The feeling after you make a big catch, moving the chains,” Pascual said. “I love the fact that I know I’m going to run a certain route and the defender is reacting. The adrenaline that runs through my body feels amazing.”

Johnson has high praise for her presence on and off the field.

“She’s a captain, which says something being this is only her third year playing,” Johnson said. “But she’s really our MVP. She produces on the field. She makes great catches. She’s always making plays. But honestly, she’s one of our leaders. She’s constantly talking to players, lifting them. I don’t know where I’d be without her.”

While Pascual has never played soccer, she was a big fan of the U.S. Women’s National Soccer team that won the World Cup last weekend.

“That was a group of women, using their platform, to help break barriers,” Pascual said. “I loved it. We are sort of doing the same thing. Women love football, too. We want to play. Trust me, I’m out recruiting players whenever I can.”

Pascual said the biggest misconception about women’s semi-pro football is concerns its physical nature. Women, she claimed, love it.

“For me, I love to take out my aggression during practices and games,” she said. “And I’m not alone. We wear pads. We like hitting. Sometimes we talk trash, too. It’s part of the game. I love it.”