When Chloe Winterton was a young girl, she recalls watching the New England Patriots on television with family friends.
Watching the historic franchise fostered a love of football, she said.
When saw a flyer for Newmarket's Huron Heights Warriors in her elementary school, the Keswick resident decided she wanted to join the squad. Despite facing some challenges, Winterton went on to stay with the team throughout her high school years and be the first female player on the school board to be part of an OFSAA bowl-winning team Nov. 27.
“I feel like I can’t quit just because I need to set an example for all the other women,” Winterton said. “I love this sport … I always want to play, even if it is hard.”
Winterton’s initial days with the team were during the pandemic. After being let on the team by coach Heath Weir — the team allows anyone with interest to participate — she got involved with the program.
It was a welcoming environment, Winterton said, offering praise for the players and coaches.
“I didn’t have a season. It was more just practices with the seniors, and they’re older, so they were really nice to me,” she said. “Taught me a lot.”
But that changed in her Grade 10 year when games began in earnest. In her first real season in football, Winterton said her being the only girl consistently with the team emerged as more of an issue as she played with younger, less mature players.
“It was really hard on me,” she said. “I’d often leave practice crying and really upset. I thought I hadn’t been given the same opportunities as some of the other boys on the team. … It’s obviously hard being the only girl on the team. The guys, they make it very obvious. It’s hard to just fit in seamlessly. People are always going to bring it up.”
But Winterton said she pushed through those setbacks.
“It made me a stronger person, and a player and a woman because of it,” she said. “I’m really grateful I did finish that season … At the end of the day, you just got to persevere through it.”
However, Winterton decided to spend her Grade 11 season playing for the York Region Lions women's team. She described it as being quite welcoming, with many players having gone through similar struggles trying to break into the often male-dominated sport of football.
“It was a different feeling, being among the girls, where they’ve all been through similar stuff and had similar experiences,” she said.
She would go on to play for Team Ontario women's squad in the summer.
“That was a really good experience as well, meeting a bunch of coaches and really connecting with them,” Winterton said.
But Winterton said she knew she wanted to rejoin the Huron Heights Warriors for her Grade 12 season.
“I knew I definitely wanted to come back,” she said. “Weir was super happy I was joining the team. He‘s always been my biggest supporter on and off the field. And the guys had matured a lot. They’ve been so much better this year, and they’ve really supported me.”
Weir said a few girls have played with the Warriors football program over the years and have come and gone, but Winterton has been the most consistent.
“She never wanted special treatment,” Weir said. “Young lady on an all-guys team with 52 other males, you wouldn’t even know she was there. Just the same as everyone else … She did a great job.”
The senior team had a victorious season, with a 12-1 record and winning a provincial bowl title Nov. 27.
“It was a really big win for everyone,” Winterton said. “The guys worked hard for it all season. It was really deserved.”
Winterton received some recognition after the win. Minister of Transportation and York-Simcoe MPP Caroline Mulroney acknowledged Winterton on social media, garnering more than 3,000 reactions on Facebook.
“Special shout out to Warrior, trailblazer and Keswick resident Chloe Winteron,” Mulroney said of her becoming the first female athlete in school board history to be on a bowl-winning team. “Congratulations on this well-deserved accomplishment.”
Winterton said she wants to move into coaching to help grow the sport and follow in the footsteps of some of the female coaches she had who have inspired her.
She said she has explored flag football programs for post-secondary education, but added that she really loves tackle football and is unsure of whether she would play on a flag team. She said there is a lack of tackle football programs for women in university.
If “opportunities come up, I’ll look for them. But as of right now, there’s not much,” she said. “It’s not fair. The boys are given opportunities in our sport that we’re not, and I think one day that will change and there will be equal opportunities for women in football.
Regardless, Winterton said she feels she left a great legacy behind in the Warriors football program.
“I’m super proud of what I’ve accomplished with Huron. Not many guys on the team can say they made history, and I think it’s cool that I can say that,” she said. “I’m proud that every woman that will come after me will kind of have some foundation laid for women in football at Huron, and they won’t be the first. The first is the hardest.”
