Four days after helping the Pittsburgh Passion win a women's football world championship, tailback and Rand native Ciara Chic is looking for things to fill her week.
Since the women's football team won the 2014 Independent Women's Football League world championship game over the weekend in South Carolina, the Passion tailback has been throwing herself into getting the last few things done before her wedding in September.
She was finding items for her wedding registry at a Pittsburgh area Bed Bath & Beyond when she was reached by a Daily Mail reporter.
"I've been a champion for three or four days now and I'm lost," said Chic, 32.
"It's so much of your life," she said. "Two days a week I have practice and every weekend we have a game or we're traveling. We got home yesterday and I've been high speed, high-tailing it to get things done for the wedding."
Chic does a lot in high speed.
An athlete from an early age, she started running track at age 10 with Capital City Striders. She continued running for DuPont High School and then Riverside High School, after the DuPont-East Bank high school consolidation.
She graduated in 2000 from Riverside with two state records in the 100-meter (12.09) and the 200-meter (24.74). Those records remain 14 years later.
She received a track scholarship to West Virginia University where she studied archaelogy and was named an All-American athlete. She attended graduate school at Ball State University in Indiana and helped coach the university's women's track team.
Chic left athletics behind until five years ago and started working as a field archaeologist and later as a social worker. She'd never given any thought to strapping on a set of pads and stepping out onto the gridiron until seeing women's football on television.
She was at home in Charleston, sick and letting her mother take care of her when she saw what she thought was high school football on television. Upon closer inspection, she saw the players were women. That piqued her interest.
"I said 'Oh my God, I want to do this,'" Chic said. "My mom told me I was crazy."
She went back to Pittsburgh with the intention of finding out how to get onto the city's team. As it turned out, she learned from a clerk at the corner store near her home that a neighbor played for the Passion. She met up with her and found out about tryouts.
She initially bought inexpensive protective gear, thinking she wouldn't make the team or see any playing time. She made the team.
"I didn't think I would make it," Chic recalled. "I ran track in college. I couldn't catch a ball. I didn't do anything else."
Chic said she was "football dumb" and knew nothing of the sport. She kept working at developing skills, not wanting to rely on her speed alone.
She knows a lot more about the sport now and is able to have an intelligent conversation with those involved with the sport. She's gotten tips on the game from Rand natives and former pro-football players Randy Moss and Bobbie Howard.
She made starting tailback after three years of playing with the Passion. She said she's come into her own. She also has better protective gear now.
Make no mistake, these women are serious about the sport. They put up their own money and work to get sponsors to help them buy necessary equipment and use facilities.
"We pay to play," Chic said. "A lot of people ask why would you ever do it? We love the sport. When you love the sport, you want to build it up."
She said the WNBA wasn't an overnight success; it took time. The same holds true for women's football. Though leagues have been around since the 1970s, the Passion formed in 2002 and have won a national championship and multiple regional titles.
She said there still are players on the team who have been around since the beginning. Younger players learn from them. Chic has two tailbacks she works with to ensure they're ready should she be unable to play.
"I want them to learn and have experience," Chic said. "If something happens to me I want them to be able to step in there and know what they're doing."
Chic put up more than 500 rushing yards, had 97 carries and at least four touchdowns for the Passion's undefeated 2014 season. She's the fifth Passion player to break 1,000 rushing yards.
Chic ran for 124 yards and scored two touchdowns in the Passion's rout over the Houston Energy, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's coverage of the game. The Passion won 41-7. Many of her family members traveled to South Carolina to watch the game.
She said it's tough to balance football and life.
"I can only imagine what my teammates go through with football and life and work and husbands and kids," she said. "It's been kind of interesting this season, balancing football and life and Verquan and planning a wedding."
Chic will wed retired boxer Verquan Kimbrough, 31, of Alquippa, Pa., on Sept. 5 in Pittsburgh.
They met through one of Chic's teammates, a mutual friend. She said her teammate tried to set them up three years before they met, but Chic resisted because she didn't want to go out with a professional athlete. Kimbrough saw Chic's picture on a mutual friend's Facebook page and asked to meet her. They met on Valentine's Day 2013.
Though initially he didn't like the idea of his girlfriend playing football, fearing she would get hurt, he warmed up to the idea, she said.
"He sees the passion we have for it and what we want to do," Chic said. "Now he's all Passioned out."
She said he has all kinds of Passion merchandise that he wears to show support.
Chic said she plans on taking a year and a half away from football after the wedding. She also plans to returning to the sport.
Contact writer Ashley B. Craig at ashley.craig@dailymailwv.com or 304-348-4850.
