PITTSBURGH— Set the record straight.

This is football. Real football. And the Pittsburgh Passion are serious about it.

Just ask the team's general manager, Jayne Beatty, a Moniteau graduate who assumed front office duties when injuries prevented her from playing.

"People have a misconception as to what we are,"Beatty said, referring to the Passion and the 32-team National Women's Football Association. "They think it's a joke. Women's football is associated with powder puff ... This is far from powder puff.

"The first team tryout I took part in was four hours long. I couldn't walk for a week."

Beatty is no soft touch athletically. She still holds the shot put and discus records at Moniteau and Slippery Rock University.

Now she's GMand team photographer for perhaps the NWFA's next champion. The Passion are in their fifth season and were one of three 8-0 teams in the league this year.

They've outscored the opposition 454 to 60, including 224-14 in their last four games. Their first-round playoff game was a 63-7 pasting of the Erie Illusion last weekend at Cupples Stadium.

The Passion scored touchdowns on seven of their first 14 plays. They scored TDs on eight of their first 18 plays the game before that.

Yet they remain the best-kept secret on the Western Pennsylvania sports scene.

"That's frustrating,"Beatty said. "The women out here hold down full-time jobs. They take care of kids. They work out and practice four times a week and don't get paid a dime."

The quarterback, Lisa Horton, is a Slippery Rock University graduate and has thrown for 1,200 yards and 10 touchdowns this year. She completed seven of 11 passes for 211 yards and four touchdowns against Erie and also directs activities for the YMCAin Pittsburgh.

Torina Henley, who has rushed for 1,145 yards and 22 touchdowns, works in technical support for a satellite TVcompany. Leading receiver Wilma Walton is a youth counselor, No. 2 receiver Lori Johnson is a teacher and placekicker Cristy Laudadio is a territory manager for a restaurant chain.

Shelley Zoelle of Renfrew, a music teacher at Mars High School and a member of the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh, was a tailback for the Passion until three weeks ago, when a torn ACL curtailed her season.

Now Zoelle is in the pressbox helping with statistics — and sings the national anthem before games.

"I scored three touchdowns this year and it was so cool," Zoelle said. "I have a killer touchdown dance.

"I've always loved football. When I saw there was an opportunity to play, I went for it. It's been a blast. We're all friends on this team and chemistry has been a big part of our success."

So has coaching. Three of the Passion's coaches — including head coach Ron Yoder — played in the NFL. Yoder is also team chaplain at the University of Pittsburgh.

Team owner Teresa Conn — who also starts at safety at 5-foot-2, 100 pounds — is a Slippery Rock University graduate and brought Yoder in as coach.

"I was involved in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes in Erie and met him through that organization,"Conn said. "He's done a tremendous job with us."

Conn is one of 19 players who have been with the Passion for all five years of their existence. The continuity has steadily improved the team, but the majority of those players are retiring after this season.

Since beginning her football career, Conn has undergone four surgeries in six years. She's broken both of her hands and ankles, a leg and a shoulder.

"Eight broken bones in all, except for fingers ... You can't count fingers," she said, smiling.

Inside linebacker Melissa Yeck, a Cranberry resident, has also been with the Passion all five years. She is a family therapist and, like Conn, is retiring after the season.

Yeck coaches gymnastics as well.

"Time becomes a problem,"she said. "I work 40 hours a week, coach 20 hours, play football on top of that. At some point, you have to have a normal life."

Yeck played football in seventh and eighth grade in the Freedom school district, but opted not to try out for her high school team.

She ran track and field and became a cheerleader instead.

"At that point, I wanted to date the boys, not hit them,"Yeck said. "But I do love the hitting aspect of football. I've wanted to be a linebacker from day one. I sacked the quarterback on my first play with this team."

Conn said she has played most sports at some point in her life.

"Football is the ultimate team sport,"she insisted. "There are no superstars. Everybody depends on everybody else. If one player breaks down, the whole play breaks down. That's what I love about it."

When the Passion franchise was formed five years ago, 300 women tried out for the team. The tryout numbers have dwindled to 60 or 70 per season, but that doesn't count returning players.

"Some women see the commitment and effort it takes to play football and find it's not for them,"Beatty said.

"We still have plenty of hungry, young players who will maintain our level of success,"Conn determined.

The sense of teamwork works for the Passion. Zoelle says she'll be back to play again in 2008.

"Put 65 women together and you're going to have arguments,"Zoelle said. "But it's all little stuff. We're like sisters. I feel like this is my second family.

"This has been a great experience that's going to get better. We're paving the way for women's sports in the future. It's a privilege being part of that."

The Passion host West Michigan in the second round of the playoffs at 7 p.m. Saturday at Cupples Stadium on Pittsburgh's South Side.