West Florida's Natalie Nicks is tackling the challenge of women's football – and she's excelling

Natalie Nicks thrives under pressure.

In high school, while at West Florida and playing for the Jaguars’ girls basketball team, Nicks had the goal of attending the United States Air Force Academy. Every day, she talked her head coach, Ieasha Stallworth-Ridgeway, about her collegiate goals and how she was going to get there.

Every day, Stallworth-Ridgeway tried to get in contact with the Air Force women’s basketball team’s coaching staff. And every day, Nicks asked Stallworth-Ridgeway if she had heard back from the Falcons.

Nicks, in her own right, kept holding herself to a high standard. She kept her grades up, holding a 4.0 grade-point average – “they didn’t care if Natalie could walk or chew bubble gum. The (Air Force) coach said, ‘Send me her grades,’” Stallworth-Ridgeway previously told the PNJ.

At the same time, Nicks kept dominating on the basketball court. She was part of back-to-back district championships in 2015 and 2016, making it to the Region 1-4A semifinals in 2016 . After four years at West Florida, Nicks became the team’s all-time leading scorer with over 1,100 points in her varsity career.

“I know it may be a mental disorder, but I swear I perform better under pressure,” Nicks said. “I put that pressure on me to perform at a high standard in stressful environments. That’s when I get the best work done.”

Nicks is now thriving in three different elements.

After graduating from the Air Force Academy and commissioning into the United States Space Force, Nicks is now a first lieutenant stationed at Patrick Space Force Base in southern Florida, serving as a cyber crew commander in the 645th Cyberspace Squadron.

“Now I’m just living the dream,” Nicks previously told the PNJ about her job in the Space Force.

She’s also working on earning her master’s degree at the same time.

And, oh yeah, she’s playing tackle football in the Women’s National Football Conference with the Mississippi Panthers, and recently won the 2024 IX Cup with the Panthers, capping off an undefeated season and dethroning four-time conference champion, the Texas Elite Spartans.

“I’m not only playing a sport, but playing that sport in a completely different state. It was taxing,” Nicks said. “I’m in the airport on my laptop, knocking out trainings and other tasks I had to do. Before games, I’m checking emails if I can. … I swear it’s not just mindless scrolling. I’m squaring things away for work while I’m pursuing my passions and my interests.”

'It's the real deal'

After playing a year for the Falcons at the Air Force Academy, Nicks had to step away from the program but continued to play intramural basketball, working toward her commissioning. But the competition wasn’t exactly where she wanted it.

During Nicks’ senior year in 2022, she was approached by someone from the Women’s National Football Conference to try out the sport. The league is always recruiting, Nicks noted, and they were trying to find whatever players they could find.

“I was like, ‘No way, women don’t play football,’” Nicks said, laughing a little. “Sure enough, I went to the tryouts and fell in love. I’ve been playing ever since.”

Nicks did have a little experience in football, but it had been quite some time.

Growing up in Pensacola, she played flag football at the Fricker Center and Cobb Center with the Salvation Army. But she was always playing on the boys teams. “My cousin was the quarterback and my uncle was the coach,” Nicks added.

A lot of her family went on to play college football, Nicks mentioned, and now that she’s been on the field – playing tackle football – she understands why it’s become “America’s sport,” she said.

“It’s so exciting, making big plays and at the same time getting big hits. Everything about a football field is so exhilarating. … Just having that opportunity to full-out play football – and of course the team aspect and having a new community of people – everything was just a ‘yes’ for me,” Nicks said. “I see why men are so in love with football. The women’s league, if people just took the time to watch the product that we put out, it’s some damn good football. It’s not like we’re just playing scrub football out here. It’s the real deal.”

How long does she plan on playing?

“I want to play football until my body tells me I can’t,” Nicks said. “That’s always going to be my answer.”

A love for the game

Nicks called the learning curve to tackle football “a steep one,” especially since players in the WNFC are picking up the sport eight or 10 years “after their male counterparts.” You have to be 18 years old to join the league, Nicks noted.

The league is still a young one, starting in 2019. There were 16 teams in the league this past season. There is one team based in Florida, the Florida Avengers based out of Jacksonville – who play their home games at Edward Waters University. During her first season with the league, Nicks played with the Denver Bandits – where she was a running back – before joining Mississippi the past couple seasons as a receiver.

This past season, Nicks hauled in 11 passes for 195 yards and three touchdowns. One of the touchdowns was a game-winning pass against Texas Elite during the regular season with less than a minute to go in the game. She also led the league in two non-kick point-after conversions.

Due to work commitments, Nicks had the goal of getting to Mississippi two weekends a month. She was also with the Panthers during tryouts and for the preseason. Other than that, Nicks does a lot of training on her own – while also watching the NFL and college football to put “everything together.”

“Having football, this new position to train for and this new goal, it completely reset my mindset and focus. I’ve been locked in ever since,” Nicks said. “A lot of that stuff was here on my own, working with strength and conditioning coaches here, as well as agility coaches, sending clips to my coaches in Mississippi, making sure I’m being held accountable. …

“I’m working on all the individual aspects of the sport, while hopping on team calls to make sure that team chemistry is on point. But a lot of the work is individual stuff I do at home.”

And that’s where the dedication comes in. Sure, Nicks might be handling multiple roles in her life, but that’s where she likes to highlight some of her teammates.

“I’m just a single woman. We have doctors and mothers who come from all walks of life,” Nicks said. “All we do is pour ourselves into this sport – and we don’t get paid. We call ourselves professionals because this is the highest level for the sport, but we don’t see a check. All my teammates are superheroes. We wear a lot of hats, and I think we wear them pretty well.”

Ben Grieco is a sports reporter for the Pensacola News Journal. He can be reached on X (@BenGriecoSports) and via email at BGrieco@gannett.com .

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: West Florida's Natalie Nicks is tackling the challenge of women's football – and she's excelling