After a recent practice for the Lingerie Football League’s Baltimore Charm, I had a few minutes to speak with Ashley Helmstetter, who will be playing on the Eastern Conference’s team in the LFL’s All-Star Game, known as the All-Fantasy Game. The teams will practice for a week prior to the game on July 30, 2011, to be broadcast live from Hamilton, Ontario at 9pm on MTV2. I also asked Charm head coach Rick Reeder, who is coaching the East team, about Ashley’s development, the message she will bring to the other players in the All-Fantasy Game and what she will bring to the Charm this season after playing for the Miami Caliente in 2010.
Baltimore Beatdown (BB): Ashley, how does it feel to be playing in the Lingerie Football League’s All-Star Game?
Ashley Helmstetter (AH): This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and I’m extremely excited.
BB: What will it be like to be playing with and against some of the best players in the entire league?
AH: We’re definitely going to dominate the east coast and take over the west. Playing the girls from the west, I think will make all of us girls from the east coast play better this year.
BB: On another tack, what’s the difference between playing for the Miami team last year and the Baltimore team this season?
AH: Both teams are hard-working. There’s different tactics in coaching behind each as far as the way they approach practice. I feel that a lot of ladies in Miami were ball players and football players their whole life and their skill level is amazing. The work ethic is great, these girls in Baltimore give it just as much or more as Miami. They work harder to learn the skills. They (the Miami players) played full tackle their whole life, it’s just second instinct, they knew the game, it was easy for them to catch on. Here (in Baltimore), girls give it 120%.
BB: Would you have liked to see some of the girls that played for Baltimore last year be in the game?
Rick Reeder (RR): I would love to have at least one or two in the game. Brittany Tegeler was chosen to represent the Charm, but couldn’t make it because she has to take care of her work. She couldn’t make the week-long practice leading up to the game on Saturday (July 31).
BB: Ashley (Helmstetter) is going as a representative of the Miami Caliente, but at the same time everybody knows she’s representing the team that she’s currently on, so what message do you want to her to give to the team she’s not only playing on, but against?
RR: The message is to show that Baltimore is different, because her talent level has increased since she’s gotten here. Miami never got to see the true Ashley Helmstetter. Even the Commissioner (LFL Chairman Mitchell Mortaza) said that she is a different ballplayer. She is totally going to change the Baltimore image when it comes to offense. She also going to be a defensive threat but she’s definitely a true athlete, but they never got it out of her in Miami.