History to Be Made This Saturday As Members of NFL’s W.O.N Program Will Officiate Sharks Game

Brooklyn, NY – This Saturday, history will be made at Floyd Bennett Field at the Aviator Sports and Event Center as members of the NFL’s W.O.N. program will be officiating the New York Sharks game for the first time ever. The NFL’s W.O.N., which stands for Women Officiating Now, is a training program for women to learn the basics of football and how to officiate the game. This program was launched back in 2013 and has been growing at a rapid pace.

This weekend the NFL has handpicked a few members of the W.O.N. Program to officiate the New York Sharks last regular season game. This will be the first time that there will be an all-female crew to officiate a regular season game. The names of the female officials that will be officiating the Sharks game are Trisha Cravener, Samantha Davis, Desiree Abrams, Sabrina Ison, and Valerie King Smith.

There is a lot of excitement for this historic event in women’s football. Many of the Sharks players and coaches are excited that they get to be a part of it.

“We are excited that they took us into consideration,” said New York Sharks Defensive Coach Collette Smith. “This is something that has not happened for both teams and I like to call it her story. This is empowering for all of us and it shows our little girls to believe in themselves and to not take no as an answer.”

Women in sports is growing every day and this event continues the progress for women in a male dominant sport. The players are excited to see more women push through the ranks of male dominant sports, too.

“ I think it is awesome and I believe our last game or the game before we actually had a women official, said Sharks wide receiver Krystal Molina at practice this week. “She refereed our game and I think it’s great. Women in sports, especially male dominant sports, I think is a beautiful thing and the more women we can get the better.”

This will go down in history of the sport as well as sports in general. This is another milestone for women in sports and should continue their progress going forward. This is an exciting time as this historic event occurs this Saturday.