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SALT LAKE CITY — Utah's female semi-pro football league plays its home opener tomorrow and the Utah Jynx are led by a quarterback who can do a whole lot more than throw touchdowns.
At home, Louise Bean uses her fingers to play beautiful music. On the field, those fingers are used to play something very different.
"Actually I wanted to play football since I was really little," Bean said. "I just always liked throwing the ball and when I was little I just thought it was great."
Several decades later, Bean is living out her dream playing semi-pro football for the Utah Jynx.
"Football for women has been going on 10 to 15 years regularly in the east, and kept going until it got out west. And it finally got to Utah four years ago," Bean said.
Best in the league. She throws a nice steady hard ball, she has a nickname of the gunslinger.
–Greg Cover, Utah Jynx owner/head coach
Beginning her fourth year, Bean will again lead the Jynx this season. In her first three years, she had several games throwing over 300 yards and last year she was named an All-Star. Not bad for the 5 feet 6 inch 41-year-old.
"Best in the league," said Greg Cover, Utah Jynx owner and head coach. "She throws a nice steady hard ball, she has a nickname of the gunslinger."
Jynx receiver Crystal Grady agrees.
"Don't call her the gunslinger for no reason," Grady said. "She's fantastic."
Maybe even better is her talent on the piano. Bean is classically trained, playing the likes of Bach, Beethoven and Mozart.
"Piano is also a passion that makes me feel so different than sports, I really like both," Bean said. "I've been paid to play, which is more than I get out of football, so that's a good thing."
I'm not 20, so I've lived longer and I finally get to do something I always wished I would have done and I didn't get to do it so it's like living the dream every day.
–Louise Bean
A lot more than football, where the players pay to play the game they love.
Back home, Louise joins her husband and three children in what she considers her number one sport —motherhood.
"I'm grateful that my husband is supportive and I couldn't do it without him," Bean said. "My mantra is I can have it all, just not at the same time."
For now, Bean says she'll continue playing the piano and never stop being a wife and mother. But when it comes to football, she hopes her fingers will be able to throw the football for at least a few more years.
"I'm not 20, so I've lived longer and I finally get to do something I always wished I would have done and I didn't get to do it so it's like living the dream every day," Bean said.
The Jynx are 3-1 heading into tomorrow's home opener. The kickoff is at 4 p.m. at Taylorsville High School.
