In 2007, I hung out with the women’s football team for a few weeks. I practiced with the New Mexico Burn to learn about the sport and the players for a piece in the Alibi . Scrappy was the team’s foul-mouthed cutup—and a huge contributor to its spirit. She was MVP in its first season.I recognized her face on the front page of the Journal today. She was shot and killed by Robert Reza at Emcore on Monday morning. Scrappy had been sitting at a table with his intended victim, ex-girlfriend Adrienne Basciano.Scrappy was an easy and immediate friend. Her humor pulled her teammates through some hard practices and boosted morale after a long string of losses. She knew the Burn was doing important work for women, for New Mexico. From the Alibi article:
Three-season Burn vet Michele Turner remembers their first home game; 1,000 people in the stands, and all of them waiting in a thunderstorm through a one-hour lightning delay. When the Burn finally took the field, the crowd roared "like we were the frikkin’ undefeated NFL champions," Turner says. "They were just so happy to see us."Turner, also called Scrappy, hears from women all the time who say they wish the Burn had gotten off the ground when they were younger. "There’s a lot of women that have always wanted to play but never had the chance," she says.She gets choked up when kids ask her for her autograph …My heart goes out to her partner, family and many friends.
