Lone Star Mustangs Ready for Inaugural Season

Can the Dallas-Fort Worth area support to two women’s professional football teams?  According to LyneMarie Liberty-Ellington they can.  Liberty-Ellington bought a new football franchise in 2008, and they will open their inaugural season in April of this year.  She bought the franchise through the National Women’s Football Association which became defunct, therefore, she and many of the other teams switched to the Women’s Football Alliance.

Currently, the Mustangs have a 54 player roster, but they still have people calling the organization interested in trying out.  The league allows 50 players on the roster and 50 on the practice squad, so the Mustangs continue to take the calls.  According to Liberty-Ellington, there are plenty of interest in women’s football in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, both by potential players and fans.  In fact, the Mustangs already have 200 season-ticket holders and are expected to have 500 by the end of February.

Liberty-Ellington is a business woman, and she has decided to use the

Mustangs franchise as a model.  Currently, she is finishing a Doctorate in Business Administration from the University of Phoenix, and she is passionate about helping women run their own businesses.  Liberty-Ellington hosts a talk radio show at  Blog Talk Radio called the Women’s Small Business Talk Radio.  Further, the Mustangs will also host the Women’s Small Business Expo at the Richardson Civic Center in June.  You can learn more about the expo at www.lonestarexpos.com.

She says the key to the success of the Mustangs’ franchise will be her year-round marketing plan.  She works full time on the franchise, finding opportunities to get the Mustang brand in front of the public.  The Mustangs are scheduled to be a guest on the Sports Geeks radio talk show and be the subject of a news report for the local NBC TV station.

In spite of being the “new girls on the block,” the Mustangs have had few struggles putting together their football team.  According to Liberty-Ellington, “Our biggest challenge has been finding a practice field.”  The Mustangs practice mostly in Euless, but have practiced in Fort Worth and Carrollton.  That challenge is finding a practice field which provides lights for practice at night and is centrally located for the players who come from all over the North Texas area.

The presence of another, well established, team in the Dallas Diamonds has not hurt interest of women wanting to play either.  “Each team needs 50 football players, and there are more than enough women interested in football,” Liberty-Ellington said.  Within a couple of months of advertising tryouts, the Mustangs had 50 women interested.  When the North Texas Fury women’s team became defunct, several of the players tried out for the Mustangs helping lay the foundation of experience on the new team’s roster.  The Mustangs are hoping a scrimmage game will help too.  They have scheduled one for March 21 in Waco against the Austin Outlaws.

The Mustangs may benefit from a first week bye, but they officially take the field on April 25th against the East Texas Saberkats at 1 p.m. at Pennington Field in Bedford.  The next week they host defending league champs the Houston Cyclones.  The Mustangs will be looking for a big crowd to help them upset the champs.  “We want to beat Houston on May 2nd” Liberty-Ellington said.  “You can put that on your site.”

You can learn more about the Mustangs football team by visiting their website, (http://lonestarmustangs.com/) www.lonestarmustangs.com or their myspace page at www.myspace.com/lonestarmustangs.   The ladies also have a Twitter page.