Talking Disney princesses, sucky quarterbacks, and WISBowl III preparations with Joanna Douillette

“When I found out, I got excited and jumped up and down.”

That’s how the Bridgewater-via-Brockton native Joanna Douillette described her reaction when Matt Moore and Nick Fox appointed her co-commissioner of WISFFL, upon Fox’s defection to Maryland.

Douillette knew she was the front-runner all along, beating out a few other candidates due to her experience with the administrative work of the league. She undertook the arduous task of creating the WISFFL sweatshirts by tapping an old contact who produced high school athletic wear, communicating back and forth for weeks until the appropriate colors were delivered. She arranged for the field of WISBowl II. And she’s committed herself to the improvement of the quality of play by participating in the combine and working on developing her own skills as a pass-catcher.

“I started out as a blocker, but I’ve evolved over time,” says the part Scottish-Italian-French-Canadian-English-Native American Douillette. “Now I can catch passes, and I think my athletic ability has improved.”

Douillette attributed this in part to attending events that were all-male, such as the combine (“well, Alissa was there, but she’s pretty much a machine”), but also to this being her maiden voyage into team sports.

“In high school, I ran cross-country and track, but this feels different,” says Douillette as she doodles sketches of herself making out with Matt Cassel. “WISFFL makes you work together. This is the first serious team I’ve been on where it’s not about the individual. You have to connect with your teammates, and it doesn’t matter if I can run faster than someone if I can’t catch a pass or coordinate a block. When I was a kid, everyone got a trophy. In WISFFL, there’s only one winner. No one feels like a loser, but you aspire to win.”

Douillette is not only concerned with her own contributions – she demonstrates a keen interest in the strategy of the league, both on and off the field.

“I prefer a run-based offense,” says Douillette, the creator of famous WISFFL plays “Mermaid” and “Boxcar.” She’s known for these and other pie-in-the-sky plays – who can forget “SAP,” the play in which the terminology changes halfway through and everyone gets confused and falls over – but aspires to revamp her contributions to also be those of a useful nature.

“Nick was a great leader,” says Douillette. “Very smart. More rational than Matt, who’s pure passion. They complemented each other well. I need to work on things like making teams even, and accounting for people dropping out of games late.”

“WISBowl II was tough,” says Douillette, whose team lost handily. “In the 1st quarter, I knew the teams weren’t right. Not to take anything away from them – Branden [Mackenzie, 95-96, 8 bazillion yards, 400 touchdowns] had a breakout game. But it’s more fun for everyone if the teams are fairly even and it’s a competitive game.”

Here, Douillette pauses and recalls WISBowl I. “A gem,” she says. “It was more competitive, Davin was there, it was really a great game.”

Though Douillette looks back frequently on past seasons, she’s ready to throw herself full-boar into season 3.

“I’d love to have our own stadium with lights and a bunch of fans, and trophies and jerseys, but I have to think more realistically. I’d love to leave a legacy beyond me and Matt, a good core group of people who have a lot of fun out there.”

Season 3’s major changes include a switch back to weekend games from weekdays that were featured in the spring season, due to more consistent appearances and less tired players.

“We seemed to have an easier time getting over hangovers than rousing up energy after work.”

Further, WISBowl III is strategically scheduled. “It’s actually football season,” says Douillette. “It just feels right out there. Plus, we get to fit WISBowl III in before we have to travel for fall conferences.”

Sounds like Douillette has replaced Fox after all.

“Oh,” she says, “and I want fireworks.”