he New York Sharks were members of the Women’s Professional Football League for the 2000 season. This was the inaugural season for the new league which consisted of 11 teams divided into 2 conferences, the American and National conferences. The National Conference was divided into 2 divisions, the East and South divisions. The American Conference was divided into 2 divisions also, the Central and West divisions. The Sharks were in the East Division of the National Conference. League play began on October 14th with each team scheduled to play 10 games. The season would culminate with the WPFL Championship Game on February 3, 2001 in Daytona Beach, Florida.

The Sharks sported a new uniform and logo design for the new league. Their colors were changed to black and blue from the black and white design the year before. The Shark logo was also streamlined for the season. New York opened their season on the road in Providence, Rhode Island as they took on the New England Storm on October 22nd. Running back Natalie Jufer showed early on that she was one of the offensive stars of the new league. Jufer scored the team’s two touchdowns as the Sharks won their first league game, 16-8.

As the season wore on, it quickly became apparent that the league was having financial difficulties. By the end of November, the operations of the league was taken over by one of the teams and the rest of the regular season was cancelled. The sudden changes made by the league to try and salvage the season resulted in a bizarre chain of events where the Sharks had to play 2 games in 2 consecutive days. The league notified the team only 2 days in advance of a change in schedule. The league wanted the Sharks to go to Rhode Island to play the New England Storm in week 8. But the Sharks already had scheduled an exhibition home game against the WCFL New York Gems. It being too late to cancel the home game, the Sharks played the Gems and trounced them 50-12. The next day, the Sharks minus their starters, went to Rhode Island to play the New England Storm. The coaches had decided that this game did not effect the outcome of the standings for the Sharks, so they left the starters in New York to rest. Without any of their starters, the Sharks were overwhelmed and lost 48-12.

The next Saturday, the Sharks and Storm met again. This time it was the first round of the playoffs as they played in the National Conference Wildcard Playoff Game. But even with all of their starters playing in this game, the Sharks played tough but could not get the victory against the Storm. New York lost to New England by the score of 10-7.

The Sharks played their 2000 home games at Mitchell Field in Uniondale, New York.

Click here for the 2000 Sharks roster

2000 Regular Season
Date	Opponent	Location	Score
October 22nd	New England Storm	at New England	16 – 8
October 28th	New England Storm	Mitchell Field	0 – 3
November 4th	Oklahoma City Wildcats	at Oklahoma	26 – 6
November 11th	Miami Fury	Mitchell Field	19 – 12
November 18th	New York Galaxy	Mitchell Field	41 – 0
December 1st	New York Gems*	Mitchell Field	50 – 12
December 2nd	New England Storm	at New England	12 – 48
Playoffs
December 9th	New England Storm	at New England	7 – 10

* exhbition game

(Click on the score to read the game write-up)

2000 WPFL Final Standings
National Conference
East Division
Team	Wins	Losses	Pct.
p-New York Sharks	4	2	.667
p-New England Storm	4	2	.667
New York Galaxy	0	4	.000
South Division
p-Daytona Beach Barracudas	6	0	1.000
Miami Fury	3	4	.429
Tampa Tempest	0	6	.000
American Conference
Central Division
Team	Wins	Losses	Pct.
p-Minnesota Vixens	5	0	1.000
p-Colorado Valkyries	4	2	.667
West Division
c-Houston Energy	5	2	.714
Austin Rage	2	5	.286
Oklahoma City Wildcats	0	6	.000

p-playoff teams c-league champion

WPFL National Conference
	Daytona Beach Barracudas
	Miami Fury
	New England Storm
	New York Galaxy
	New York Sharks
	Tampa Tempest
WPFL American Conference
	Austin Rage
	Colorado Valkyries
	Houston Energy
	Minnesota Vixens
	Oklahoma City Wildcats
Exhibition Team
	New York Gems (WCFL)