When the NFL season opens Thursday, bars all over America will be filled with people who love the drama and grace of every last down. Erica Boeke will be one of them.

But this particular season has a special twist for this devoted sports fan-turned-author of a new book called Gameface: The Kick-Ass Guide for Women Who Love Pro Sports. Boeke -- along with co-author Chris De Benedetti -- has created a place for women like her to call home, not just with the book, but with a Web site called GoGameFace.com, aimed at female sports fans.

Just to be clear, these are women who love professional sports -- not to impress a boyfriend or get a date, not to ogle men in tight pants, and not to rattle off inane statistics to one-up the guy on the next barstool. These women love the stories, the atmosphere, the tension, and the inspiration that only sports can bring. Most, like Boeke, count following pro sports as an integral part of their childhood and have a high comfort level in the ballpark or the sports bar.

“Quite simply: I love sports,” Boeke writes in the introduction of her book. “My female friends love sports. We talk about big games and plays. We meet in sports bars and attend big games together, where yes, we pay attention to what’s going on. We talk about which player is kicking ass and why -- and yes, also which player is dating whom. We talk about a great new sports movie in theatres. We talk about a particular sports scandal … Loving sports doesn’t consume our lives, but sporting events are a big part of our lives.”

And while I, a former sports writer, related very much to all of this, the life coach in me was struck by something else – Boeke’s story. How does someone whose 12-year marketing resume includes a bunch of major Conde Nast publications as well as The New York Times wind up chucking it all to cater to the female sports fan?

Boeke honed her writing skills as an undergraduate at UC-San Diego, then by becoming the associate editor of the San Francisco Giants magazine in her first job out of college, and then by earning a master’s degree at Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism. The leap to New York and Conde Nast came after that.

While Boeke thrived in marketing, a schedule of working until midnight, eating cereal, and starting all over again the next day started to wear on her.

“Conde Nast is pretty intense,” she said. “I quit to freelance, but I never had a plan, so I got sucked back in by the big title and paycheck. After my fourth stint at The New York Times, my boss said, ‘Do you realize we’re not gonna have this conversation again?’”

Although it was said in a friendly way, it had its impact on Boeke nonetheless. So did her fifth time marketing Conde Nast’s Gourmet Institute event in mid-October of 2006. Her birthday, as well as her father’s, fell during the event each year.

“I had an epiphany,” Boeke said. “It was five birthdays down the drain. My family was at my apartment. I was in my late 30s and I felt like I had been hit by a truck. I looked at my Dad and said, ‘I missed your birthday. I’m a terrible daughter.’ Even though I was well-paid, there was no joy in it.”

And so Boeke knew it was time to take her most viable idea -- filling the void in the market for the real female sports fan -- and work on it nights and weekends. 

“The book was the best way to establish a brand,” Boeke said.

Her hard work paid off when her book proposal landed her an agent at William Morris. They sold the book by July 2007, and it was completed in early 2008.

“The reward [of finishing the book] was greater than selling a deal at Conde Nast,” Boeke said. “Sometimes it was very isolating, but there is freedom in it. To me, the worst thing I could do is go back to a corporate environment.”

Which brings me to my favorite part of the story, the one where Boeke decided to join her father -- in his 70s and well into his retirement from his executive job at Atlantic Richfield -- in applying for work with a minor league baseball team, the Lehigh Valley IronPigs in Pennsylvania.

“They had a job fair,” Boeke said. “We interviewed in a high school gym. They asked for my last salary on the application and I laughed. I had worked for the San Francisco Giants and GQ. They didn’t know what to do with us.”

Both were hired as ushers.

“We get paid $35 a game,” she said. “You would have thought I won the lottery.”

In a way, she did. The dream lottery. Boeke knows there is still much work to be done and that nothing is certain. But she also knows she must be comfortable with uncertainty if she is to build the life she wants moving forward.

“If you dwell on ‘what if it fails?’ it will fail,” she said.

For now she will dwell on a book tour that goes through New York this week, the staff of 20 volunteers currently building and maintaining the Gameface Web site, and plans for an apparel line.

“I’d love to have this turn into a living, breathing company. That’s the dream,” Boeke said. “There are so many people who have no interest in pursuing their dream. Sometimes you have to take a minute to pat yourself on the back for doing something others are afraid to do. I feel so lucky. It’s such a blast.”

Nancy Colasurdo is a practicing life coach and freelance writer. Her Web site is www.nancola.com. Please direct all questions/comments to FOXGamePlan@gmail.com.