Sami Grisafe

Sami Grisafe is a recording artist and a women’s football player. As an athlete, she helped the United States capture the gold medal at the 2010 IFAF Women’s Tackle Football championships in Stockholm, Sweden.

High school
Grisafe attended high school in Redlands, California. In 2001, she was the first female quarterback to compete in a football game sanctioned by the California Interscholastic Federation Division 1.

As a child, she also played boys’ baseball. In the nine years that Grisafe played, she would be the first girl in her community named to a boy’s baseball All-Star team.

Chicago Force
In 2007, Grisafe joined the Chicago Force (competing in the IWFL). At the time, she was studying dramatic arts at Roosevelt University.

During the 2011 Women’s Football Alliance season, she had 1,746 passing yards and 24 touchdown passes.

The 2012 campaign resulted in Chicago’s fourth undefeated season in franchise history. On August 4, 2012, Grisafe and the Chicago Force competed in the WFA championship against the San Deigo Surge. It was a historic game because it was the first played on an NFL field (held at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh).

Musical career
As a singer and performer, Grisafe was recruited by the WFA to record a theme song for the league. It would be called Fourth and Inches.

She was the lead singer for a band known as The Wick, Grisafe was the band’s lead singer, and their first album was a self-published effort titled The Wick on Wax.

In 2012, an album called Atlantis was recorded with The Sami Grisafe Band (which features Chris Buehrle, Jaclyn Rada, Andy Neel and Janet Cramer). The album was co-produced by Grammy winner Ricciano Lumpkins and received six pre-nominations in the first round of Grammy nominations. Grisafe won a Chicago Music Award in 2013 as Best Rock Entertainer. In addition, she performed at the SXSW music festival in Austin, Texas.

Personal life
Grisafe is openly gay and recorded song as a show of support for The Trevor Project. The Trevor Project looks to prevent suicide among lesbian and gay individuals.

Awards and honors

 * 2007 Offensive Player of the Year
 * 2011 Offensive Co-Player of the Year
 * 2012 Team MVP
 * Team Captain, 2008, 2009, 2010
 * IWFL All-Star selection (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010)
 * WFA All-America honors (2011, 2012, 2013)