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One would think that with a highlight and feature program airing twice a week on television, a nonprofit organization and a recent induction into Balboa Park's Hall of Champions, SunFire would be a household word in San Diego.
Surprisingly, it's not.
SunFire is San Diego's own women's professional football team. There's nothing powder-puff about this game-just hardworking women who have put San Diego on the women's football map.
SunFire is one of eight teams in the American Football Women's League. There are six leagues throughout the country, with roughly 70 teams total. The SunFire plays only on the West Coast, including Hawaii, a trip that owner and manager Donna Fox financed.
Fifty-five women, most of whom are professionals, such as Idec Pharmaceuticals biologist Christina Bevilacqua, (who plays defensive linewoman), Donna Lawrence (a tight end) and Shannon Oltarzewski (a linebacker), partners and owners of Lawrence & Oltarzewski LLP, an El Cajon law office, took the SunFire to a near-perfect second season.
"All of these women have other jobs, they have families, some of them go to school," Fox said. "It really takes motivation and dedication to be able...