As Sarah "Sam" Favata stood on the sideline during the NWFA match-up between the Columbus Comets and the Cleveland Fusion Saturday, she wore a grimace for two reasons - the pain in her knee and her inability to rejoin the Comets defense on the field.
Favata, a senior in sport and leisure studies at Ohio State, started the game at middle linebacker, but was helped off the field after buckling her right knee during the Fusion's opening drive.
Favata's yearning to take the field was evident at the end of regulation as she paced gingerly behind the bench with the score tied 8-8. Her wince reverted to a smile however when the Comets (4-1) took the victory 22-16 in triple overtime over Cleveland (3-2).
Raised by her mother and grandmother in Toledo, sports were a big part of Favata's upbringing, with football as champion, Favata said.
"I was influenced a lot by my grandma," Favata said. "She loved football, my earliest memories were watching football with her. She was a fanatic."
Along with a love of football, Favata inherited her nickname from her late grandmother. "My mom used to call her Sam. When my grandma died I started going by Sam to keep a connection to her," Favata said.
Favata has been an athlete for her entire life, having swum competitively as a child and being a track and field athlete, throwing discus for Bowsher High School in Toledo and Bowling Green State University.
When she transferred to OSU, Favata switched from track and field to football. Now in her third year with the Comets, Favata said she likes physical sports and uses the hard-hitting contact on the field as a means of stress relief.
Not only did she swap sports, she traded a major in recreation and tourism to focus on sport and leisure studies. "I can't live without sports for the rest of my life, so I want to make my life about sports," Favata said.
Favata will graduate at the end of spring quarter and said she would like to pursue a career as a coach at the high school or college level for either swimming or track and field.
In the meantime, Favata said she is looking forward to playing with the Comets for the foreseeable future. "I want to stay at least until we win a championship," Favata said. "Hopefully we'll win a few in my career."
While Favata said she plans on a speedy recovery and expects to play next week, her mother, Glenous Favata, said she was worried at the time of Sam's injury. "I was concerned, but I didn't want to be the doting mother, so I stayed in the stands until I could go down and say, 'how are you doing?'" Glenous Favata said.
"I am very proud of her," Glenous Favata said of her daughter. She travels from her home in Toledo to every Comets home game and most of the away games too.
The Comets gather a lot of support from family members, but Sam Favata said she wishes there was more support from the general public in a football city such as Columbus. "I don't understand why there isn't more support for us (the Comets)," Favata said.
The Comets will finish out their regular season schedule on the road facing the Erie (Penn.) Illusion (2-2) Saturday, the West Virginia Wonders (0-5) June 7 and the St. Louis Slam (5-0) June 14.
The win over Cleveland secured the division for the Comets. The playoffs begin June 28.
Ethan Lindell can be reached at lindell.3@osu.edu.
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