Flag Football

 

Ralph Morrow

 

Diane Beruldsen went by DBQB when she was a quarterback, playing at Bernstein Park on Stock Island.

 

 

For the 23rd year, Diane Beruldsen is heading up the IWFFA tournament.

 

 

Beruldsen, flag football

 

 

a match again this week

 

 

Norway seems so far away from Key West. And it is. But that’s where Diane Beruldsen lives when she isn’t in Key West, putting on the International Women’s Flag Football Association tournament.

 

 

Beruldsen and flag football go together. She founded the association and the tournament, which carries the name of actress and one-time Key West resident Kelly McGillis. This week’s event at Wickers Field is the 23rd annual edition and the 54-year-old has put on all of them.

 

 

She brought the sport to Key West, starting with three teams playing every Sunday at Bernstein Park on Stock Island. A quarterback, Diane Beruldsen went by DBQB.

 

 

Three years ago, she realized that running flag football tournaments wouldn’t give her a pension so she moved to Norway, the country of her ancestors. “It’s very dark, very north there,” she said one recent afternoon during her five-week vacation that she uses to direct the flag football tournament. “Right now, it’s dark from 4 p.m. until 8:30 a.m.”

 

 

Beruldsen’s job in Norway consists of riding her bicycle around the city of Stavanger, starting at 10 p.m., looking for drug addicts.

 

 

She said all of her transportation is by bicycle, although she recently received a driver’s license – at a fee of $3,000 — but has no plans to buy an automobile. “Too expensive,” she says. “It’s another world over there. Pedestrians and bicyclists have the complete right-of-way. But I do get 24 sick days and five weeks of paid vacation a year. Here (in Key West), I almost got run over by a driver in a car while I was riding my bicycle.”

 

 

Beruldsen, who held various jobs in the Key West area, including teaching at Sugarloaf School, also is a substitute teacher at an international school in Stavanger. “That’s where I get to speak English,” she said.

 

 

When her parents spoke Norwegian in their Brooklyn, N.Y., home, she says she would tell them to speak the language of the country in which they were living. “We blew it,” she says now. “I could have learned Norwegian then. Now, I’m trying to learn it. The next place I work will be a day care center. That’s the best place to learn Norwegian.”

 

 

Through the early part of the week, the women and girls from Colorado, Wisconsin, Tampa, Chicago, New York City and Key West  attended clinics and practices and enjoyed what the island city has to offer. At 4:30 p.m., tonight (Thursday), there’ll be a parade down Duval. The games start at 10:30 a.m., Friday, and continue on Saturday and Sunday.

 

 

Then, Beruldsen will be off to El Salvador, Honduras and Panama, where she will conduct clinics and promote the sport she loves. After that, it’s back to Norway.

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