Kalista Diamantopoulos
Tiffany Matthews is an Alexandria firefighter in addition to being owner of the D.C. Prodigy women's football team.
If you’re not already aware of D.C.’s all-female tackle football team, you should be. Washington Prodigy owner and player Tiffany Matthews, an Alexandria native, is not just on the field, but changing the whole game.
Matthews is now a firefighter at Station 204 in northeast Alexandria. When she’s not at the station, she’s playing tackle football with the team she founded and owns. Matthews started the Washington Prodigy in 2012. The team has held on to an 8-0 record in its past three seasons.
Matthews has always been a football fan but did not play the sport growing up. It wasn’t until 1999 while deployed overseas that she started playing football.
Instead, her childhood was spent playing basketball and softball at local parks and recreation centers. “Basketball was my first love. Softball I was better at than anything. In hindsight, I wish I had taken softball seriously. I was just naturally good at it.”
Matthews said her first experience playing softball was at the Cora Kelly Recreation Center in elementary school.
“I remember the gym teacher at the time, he was the coach. He said, ‘You can come on and play.’ I don't know what made me. I was excited. I wanted to play. It was the same day as one of the games, and my parents were looking for me because I would go to the Rec and then go straight home.”
Matthews’ parents were initially mad because they couldn’t find her, but seeing their daughter play so well quickly dispelled their anger.
“When they found me, I guess there may have been a couple of innings left so they were able to see me play, and that in itself kind of took their anger. I mean, I got a talking to, but I think what saved me from a whooping was that I was good at it.”
From that point on, Matthews said, anything she wanted to do sports-wise her parents supported. They also weren’t worried about her getting hurt, Matthews remarked chuckling, “All that playing around, the parks and the Recs with my cousins and other family members, that was just always me. We got hurt, and wiped our knees off and kept going outside.”
It wasn’t until 1999, when she served in the military overseas in Europe, that Matthews started getting involved in football. “They had a flag football team and one of the guys who lived in the barracks across from me was like, ‘You should come out and play,’ so that was my first experience. That was my first organized football experience.”
When she returned to the U.S., she started working at Joint Base Andrews (then Andrews Air Force Base). A friend told her about a team playing at a local field and decided to join.
From there, she learned more about the sport and was recruited to play for the D.C. Divas in 2004, a football team in the Women's Football Alliance. The Divas started in 2000 as one of the first 10 franchises in the National Women’s Football Association (NWFA).
After several successful seasons with the D.C. Divas, Matthew’s decided in 2012 to start her own team.
“I felt super passionate about my reasons for wanting to start it. As with anything, women's football started getting political, a lot of things that were happening outside of football that were affecting on-field things and it just didn't seem fair to the women that were putting in their time and effort,” she said.
“I just felt like I wanted to bring another aspect to women's football…. I am the type of person that if I want something done right, I'm just going to do it my way.” Matthews explained that it wasn’t that she felt any animosity towards her former team, rather, she had a decisively different vision for the progress and future of women's football.
Starting the Washington Prodigy meant shifting from player to owner, which was unfamiliar territory for Matthews. Much of the money came out of her own pocket.
“I didn't really get the chance to see all the behind-the-scenes, what goes into making everything happen,” Matthews said, of her time with the Divas.
She had to learn to handle a plethora of situations from coaches and staff quitting on game day to communicating with other people in the industry who were not on the same page as her. She said, “You feel like you're on the same journey, on the same wavelength, and then you realize you're not on a lot of things.”
The next big step Matthews took was from owner to coach. “I didn't get a lot of coaching experience, like I said, from player to ownership. I knew what I wanted in a coach but I'd never coached.”
Matthews went to her head coach, Tony Bell, who has now been with the team for four years and was named 2019 USWFL Coach of the Year. She asked him to mentor her. “I know so much about the x's and o's of the sport and laying out the dynamics, but teaching it is a completely different animal. I have so much respect.”
No matter what role she is playing — player, coach, or owner — Matthews is deliberate in fostering a sense of camaraderie between the players on her team. “Everything brings the players together, like all the adversity. They carpool, they just become a family.”
Matthews helps nurture this bond through retreats, after-practice dinners, and another special ritual. “I go around and I say something about each player.” She says that the players have told her how much it means to them to see that someone is paying attention to them. “The team is my baby,” Matthews said contentedly, “it's my passion.”
The Prodigy is a volunteer-run, 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with Jordyn White as general manager. The team is a member of the United States Women’s Football League.
Although the sport does not receive much coverage, it is widespread with three leagues and teams in every major U.S. city across the nation.
So what advice does Tiffany Matthews have for young girls out there who might be interested in football?
“Find a team, whether it's flag or tackle football.” Matthews said. “There's so much that is offered to women playing the sport now. Find a team, ask to workout with them. It's so cliche but don't let anyone tell you that you can't do anything. You have support in the community. Once women get involved, once young girls get involved, they realize how much of a backing that they have across the nation.”
