Women’s Pro Tackle Football Team Coming to Buffalo, New York

Cheers, beers, tears and broken tables. Buffalo is undoubtedly a sports city. From professional football to lacrosse and hockey, a minor league baseball team and an incoming team in the United Soccer League, there’s many teams to give your heart to in Queen’s City.

Yet, there still isn’t a professional team for women.

At least, not since the Buffalo All-Stars became the first professional tackle football team for women in New York in 1970.

Julius and Tahzsa Davis, a married couple that’s spent most of their life on the East Side, as well as Julius’ brother Jeronica, are en route to change that by bringing the Buffalo Yetis to the community — a professional tackle football team for women.

“It (football) allowed me to express myself, it allowed me to be me. It allowed me to be great at something, because I had that opportunity,” said Julius Davis, a founder of the football club.

Davis wants to provide that opportunity to women, and believes everybody should be able to play football.

They believe that Buffalo is a great spot to start out at given the family-oriented nature of the city.

Your age shouldn’t shy you away, either. As long as you’re at least 18, you can spike up and tryout.

“It’s never too late. I believe we have like a 45-year old on the team,” said Davis.

Beginning in 2025 the Yetis, given their name because of the snow that inevitably falls in Buffalo, plan to join 60 other teams in the Women’s Football Alliance.

The Davis family hopes the Yetis can help unite the community, and they plan to give back to the people in Buffalo as much as they can.

“It ain’t about the money, you know what I mean?” Davis said with a smirk. “It’s about the community.”

Ideally, the club would be able to help sponsor events to help bring up the inner city as well as help the younger kids by pairing with little league football teams. They also have aspirations of doing a training camp for girls that play flag football.

The WFA only allows 53 women on the roster, but Davis said he would keep 100 women if he could, and is checking to see if there is any way he can keep more than 53 athletes.

For those not interested in the gridiron, there will also be a unisex cheerleading team.

Although there is still about a year until the Yetis officially kick things off, they’re hosting tryouts now to prepare their players for future game days.

“We are doing all this now because we want to teach, we want to show techniques. We want to show safety. We want to teach them the meaning of the game,” said Davis

Tahzsa and Julius Davis believe this will help the athletes feel more comfortable and confident when they do get to play their first snap.

While the first round of tryouts have already passed, there will be another tryout held on July 13 at Mulroy Park in South Buffalo.

The Yetis are still looking for sponsors. For more information, check out their website at buffaloyetis.com or follow them on their social media platforms @buffaloyetis.