Bone-rattling hits, clashing helmets, interceptions, one-hand catches and returning kicks for big yards. Yes it’s football, but women are making these plays for the Columbus Flames, a women’s professional football team in its first season in Columbus.

Three Ohio State women get to experience all the thrills of the gridiron in a league of their own called the National Women’s Football Association.

Chrissy Fowler, 25; Jennifer Hutchison, 21; and Whitney Barnes, 19, all attend classes at OSU while playing football for the Columbus Flames.

The Flames (3-2) are in their first season as an expansion team in the NWFA. They play eight regular season games – four home and four away – in a league created in August of 2000 by Catherine Masters, a sports and entertainment entrepreneur.

The first season was played in the spring of 2001 with 10 teams in two divisions. The league has flourished every year of its existence, adding 11 teams in 2002 and nine teams this season. The NWFA is now made up of 30 teams in six divisions across the country.

Hutchison and Barnes are working on their undergraduate degrees in chemistry and exercise science, respectively, while Fowler is in her first year as a graduate student in women’s studies. All three women have played a variety of sports in the past, and have athletic experience at the collegiate level.

Fowler, who played softball at OSU from 1999-2002, is a wide receiver and kick returner for the Flames. She also serves as a co-captain for the team. According to Flames head coach Hank Patterson, she is a tremendous leader who has that same drive and determination that you would see in men.

“I enjoy the challenge, it is you against the ball, and you against your defender; every play is your own,” Fowler said. “Making a good play in football feels like hitting a walk-off home run in softball.”

Hutchison played basketball for a year at Capital University before transferring to OSU and trying out for the Flames. She leads the team in tackles with 56 from the linebacker position, and she earned defensive player of the game on May 10 against the D.C. Divas.

” ‘Hutch’ has some outstanding athletic ability. She could just as easily be our quarterback, fullback, tailback or wide out,” Patterson said. “She has great speed, and the only people I know that have more intensity than her play on Sundays.”

Hutchison said football is a combination of all the sports she’s ever played. It combines strength, endurance and raw aggression.

“In basketball you have aggression toward someone, and you have to channel it to be able to do anything. But in football, it all builds up,” Hutchison said. “You have all this energy the second before you hit someone. It is amazing.”

Barnes is also wide receiver for the Flames and has tremendous athletic ability with great hands and great footwork, Patterson said. She is a former member of the OSU rowing team and participated in cross country and track in high school. She didn’t hesitate when the chance to play football came along.

“The rowing team at Ohio State was a great experience – I loved it – but when I tried out for the Flames and made the team, then I had to play. It is something that has always been a dream for me,” Barnes said.

Patterson, a former high school coach in the Columbus City School District, is the president of the City League Coaches Association. He coached high school football in Columbus for a total of 14 years, also spending some of that time as a women’s basketball and track coach. When he was first approached about coaching women’s professional football, he thought someone was playing a practical joke on him.

“At first when they called me up, I thought that my coaching buddies were playing a prank on me. But then when they told me who they were and what they were part of, I looked up the information on the Internet site for the league and was like ‘this thing is legit’,” Patterson said. “I saw it as a ground-floor opportunity, and I wanted to take a shot at it, so I jumped in.”

A wide variety of women make up the Flames, ranging in age from 18 to 41. Most of these women have other careers or are students and play football for free, at least for this year. No official figure was taken, but an estimated 3,000 people filled the stands for the Flames’ 21-18 opening win against the Pittsburgh Passion on April 19 at Beechcroft High School.

Even with poor weather conditions for their last couple of home games, the Flames have maintained a solid fan base that fill the majority of stands in the high school stadiums they play in. The Flames have one home game and two road games remaining in the regular season.

The team should know around June 14 if it will receive an automatic bid or one of six league wild-cards births to go to the playoffs. Playoff teams have a chance to play in the SupHer Bowl.

Fowler, Hutchison and Barnes all plan to play until they physically can’t do it anymore. They encourage people who are skeptical of women playing football to see for themselves that they can hit, and they can play.

“Come out and watch – you see it once, and everybody is amazed. Ohio State football players, everybody is amazed. You’ve just got to see it,” Fowler said.

Their next home game is 7 p.m. on Saturday at Centennial High School. Flames tickets are $15 at the door or can be purchased on the their Web site at www.columbusflames.com.