By Kathleen Nelson
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
06/15/2007
"A Parisian in America" doesn't have the same ring to it as "An American in
Paris." Still, Laure Gelis-Diaz's journey from Paris to St. Louis is quite an
athletic adventure tale.
Three years ago, she knew little about St. Louis, even less about football the
way Americans play it. Yet she is finishing her third season with the St. Louis
Slam, a full-contact football team that closes its home schedule Saturday at CBC
High School, and loving every minute of it.
"That's why I believe in destiny," she said. "Good things snowball when you take
a chance."
Her stint with the Slam is the latest in a series of athletic transitions that
she has handled deftly, thanks to ability, spunk and uncanny timing. A tennis
player since age 7, Gelis-Diaz took up soccer on the side, much like the heroine
in "Bend It Like Beckham." She had a father who didn't want her to play, but
older brothers Olivier and Manu lured her into pickup games with their friends.
"When I played with the guys and was better than them, I realized I was good,"
she said.
She didn't know how good, though, until she went to watch tryouts for the Paris
St. Germain men's club, which also was holding tryouts for its women's team.
Gelis-Diaz asked a woman at the stadium for directions. The woman misunderstood
and sent Gelis-Diaz to the field for the women's tryouts. She recognized the
mistake as fate, tried out and made the team in 2002.
At the same time, Gelis-Diaz entered Paris X Nanterre University, majored in
physical education and took a class in kickboxing. She liked the sport and
decided to enter a novice competition. But she showed up on the wrong day, when
the elite athletes were competing in a regional event.
"I said, 'I'm here. I should try.'" She entered. She won. She advanced to the
French University National Championships. She won. She continued to compete for
Nanterre the next year. "That was funny," she said.
Gelis-Diaz's fortune seemed to turn, though, when she suffered a pair of
anterior cruciate ligament tears playing soccer. Each required surgery, followed
by six months of rehab.
"It was my dream to play soccer as a professional in America," she said. "With
two surgeries, I thought maybe nobody would want me. But I am hard-headed."
She returned to school to finish her degree and to play soccer for Paris St.
Germain. She enlisted her parents to record and produce a highlight video that
she sent to U.S. colleges. She said about 20 schools expressed interest but
seemed unwilling to sort out her eligibility.
Only one coach took a chance. Kevin Botterill of Oakland City University, a
Division II school about a half-hour east of Evansville, Ind., said Gelis-Diaz
fell under the NCAA's one-time transfer rule, leaving her with one year of
eligibility. She played for one season and worked toward a master's degree in
marketing.
"I watched the video and realized she could do a lot of things with the ball
that our players couldn't do. We were pretty excited," Botterill said. "She
strikes me as a person with no reservations about trying something new. I
wouldn't be surprised by anything she does."
That includes launching her football career on a trip to Wal-Mart, where Gelis-Diaz
went shopping one day for a soccer ball. Sitting next to them were footballs.
She bought one of each, she said, "because I thought the football was cool." She
enjoyed tossing and catching the football with her soccer teammates and decided
to watch Super Bowl XXXIX "out of curiosity and because it was a challenge to
understand."
A few weeks later, in the spring of 2005, she saw an ad for tryouts for a
National Women's Football League franchise in nearby Evansville. She made the
team, which folded a few weeks later. Gelis-Diaz was hooked, though.
"I love football because the strategy is extremely complicated," she said. "The
team that wins is the most physical and the most psychologically ready. It's a
complete game: heart and head."
She researched the league on the Internet and found the nearest franchises were
in Indianapolis, Cincinnati and St. Louis. She tried out for each and made them
all.
"What really was different in St. Louis was the ambiance," Gelis-Diaz said. "The
team felt close. It was the best choice."
Slam owner Nancy Simonds, though, wasn't so sure.
"I tried to deter her," Simonds said. "She had to make a three-hour drive each
way for practice twice a week and for games. I didn't think she could keep it
up."
Slam coach Rodney Lacy also had doubts, especially because Gelis-Diaz is 5 feet
7 and about 135 pounds.
"I thought she was too little, too skinny to play," said Lacy, formerly an
assistant football coach at Edwardsville High who recently was named head coach
at T.F. North in Calumet City. "But she moved so athletically. She was very
physical, very quick and strong. I knew she had potential."
Her teammates needed about 10 seconds to come up with her nickname, Frenchy.
Though Gelis-Diaz speaks fluent English, Lacy said language "was a huge barrier.
You couldn't use slang or football terminology."
Like many of her teammates, Lacy said, Gelis-Diaz questioned the rules, strategy
and minutiae of football, "why she couldn't line up for a kickoff the way she
took a free kick in soccer. The timing was tough at first, but now it comes
naturally."
She also became invaluable on offense as a receiver, on defense as a rover back
and as a punt returner. She and Lacy agreed that she is most effective on
defense because "I am fearless. From soccer I learned that if you go full speed,
you never get hurt."
Commuting ended last year, when she earned her master's degree, but life on and
off the field continues full speed ahead. She moved to St. Louis and took a job
with Marketing Works. She is sixth in the league in tackles, with 82, and is
second in interceptions, with four, one of which she returned for a touchdown.
Giles-Diaz, 26, also has become a personal trainer and hopes to open her own
business. First, though, she must get a green card. She has amassed a case file
with evidence of her prowess at kickboxing, soccer and football and has
collected letters of support from Jackie Joyner-Kersee, former Rams Mike Jones
and Kurt Warner, and Sen. Claire McCaskill.
The process is arduous, but the red tape "just doesn't matter," Gelis-Diaz said.
"If you feel strongly about something, you have to make things happen.