WR Liz Sowers
Nickname: Liz, Steel Panther
Contact for Media Inquiry
Years Playing: 9
Height: 5’9, Weight: 165
Age: 30
Date Born: 08/07/86
Location Born: Hesston, KS
College: Oakland University
High School: Hesston High School
Favorite Sports Teams: FC Kansas City Women’s soccer of course. As for football, well it used to be the Atlanta Falcons, but now that my sister is working with the 49ers, that has to be my new favorite team.
Full-Time Profession: I work for the women’s professional soccer team here in Kansas City (FC Kansas City). I have been working for them for about 5 months now. I do everything from social media, graphic design, player operations, game day operations…you name it, I do it!
Hobbies: I love art, graphic design, making music videos.
Passions: Family and football. My niece (3.5 years) and nephew (1yr) are my world.
Sports played in College:: I played Basketball at Oakland University in Michigan. It is a small NCAA D1 University.
Other Sports played: In high school I played Volleyball, Basketball and did track. I was a state champion in the javelin my senior year of high school (2004) and placed 3rd in state in the discus.
How you got into football: I always loved the game. I grew up playing in the backyard with the boys down the street. Once I got older, I thought I couldn’t play because I was a girl, so i just stuck 
with basketball. After I graduated from Oakland, I moved in with my twin sister in Goshen, IN and we found a team nearby (Kalamazoo, Michigan) called the Michigan Mayhem and fell in love with women’s football.
Pets: Dexter (Goldendoodle)
Family: My mom and dad still live in Hesston where I grew up. My dad coached women’s college basketball and my mom was the director of nursing for Hesston College. I have one older sister, Steph, and a twin sister Katie. Steph has two kids, my pride and joy, Clara and Sam. Clara is 3 and Sam will be one on June 25th! My girlfriend, Jen, just recently retired from playing professional soccer and is now in physical therapy school at KU med. She just finished her first year.
Two Truths & a LIE!
— I have represented the country in 3 different sports
— I have one sister.
— My 3-year-old niece and I get matching Jordans every year.
In Her Own Words:
Family for me is probably the most important thing in my life. My parents are some of my number one fans. My older sister is my role model that I strive to be like, and my twin sister is my best friend. My niece and nephew are the best things that have ever happened to me and I can’t even remember the days before them, and honestly I don’t really want to remember those days.
I grew up in a family surrounded by sports. My dad coached women’s college basketball, I played just about every sport you can think of when I was young, even football (in the backyard). I remember playing football everyday with the boys down the street. We used to kick their ass. It was my passion to play. I had a John Elway jersey — for some reason I was a huge Broncos fan (Editor’s note: See Vicky Eddy’s theory on that.) Katie, my twin sister, was a Dallas Cowboys fan.
Every day during the summer we would get boys together and play. Full tackle. As we got older, entered into middle school, then into high school, suddenly I watched these boys I had grown up playing with in the back yard, coming home with actual varsity uniforms, football pads, everything. I didn’t understand that. They finally got to actually play the game we loved, and I didn’t. I still remember the jealousy and pain I felt to see them get to experience that and to think I never would.
I ended up sticking with basketball and played at a small D1 university in Michigan. I started playing football for the West Michigan Mayhem after I graduated college. I decided to move back to Kansas City to be near my family and started playing for the Kansas City tribe in 2010. Went on to be a grad assistant basketball coach at UMKC where I got my masters in Higher Education Administration with an emphasis in sports administration and continued to play football for the Tribe, which then became the Titans once we merged with the Spartans.
The best thing about women’s football is that it is the only place in society where you can look at girls of all shapes and all sizes, and say I NEED everyone of you. WE need you. You are important. Without you we will not be successful. If we all are built the same we will not succeed.” Society tries to tell us we need to be this certain way. Football does the opposite. Football says the recipe for success = just a little bit of everything.
Right now I work to play football so that someday, some little girl will be able to play football for work. I may not see the day when I can play, and get paid, but someday…someday she will. I play for her.
My hopes and dreams for women’s football is that someday we won’t dream of playing or coaching in the NFL. Someday we will dream of playing/coaching in the WNFL.
