Flag football frenzy: How a student’s perseverance led to an all-women's flag football club at ASU
Super Bowl-winning head coach Vince Lombardi once said the iconic quote, “It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get up.” This phrase aptly describes the perseverance of Arizona State University sophomore Sierra Smith in her pursuit of creating a collegiate flag football club team for women.
Smith has had a love for football since she was young and has been something she has pursued all her life. She played wide receiver, defensive back and safety for her all-girls football team at Chandler’s Hamilton High and Club Handle Biz Have Fun (HBHF), a recreational sports league in Arizona. When she arrived at ASU in 2023, she aimed to continue her playing by creating an all-girl collegiate flag football club team here at ASU. However, the process proved to be cumbersome and difficult to pull off by herself.
“I definitely failed (at first),” Smith said. “I had to restart the process three times.”
However, when Smith experienced a setback, she got back up and continued to push for the establishment of her club. Her perseverance paid off, as the Women’s Club Flag Football team at ASU officially kicked off its inaugural season this year with Smith as the team captain.
“But then, I was connected with the right people,” Smith said. “I was connected with people who would help me, support me, and I was able to pull it off.”
The team played its first game against Grand Canyon University’s women's flag football team on Jan. 31. Erik Moses, the CEO of the Fiesta Bowl, served as an honorary captain for the coin toss of the event. Smith is thrilled to see her hard work pay off and to see her team prove that football is not just a sport for men.
“We're very excited and honestly, just seeing all these girls out here and playing a male-dominated sport, it's empowering,” Smith said. “It's inspiring. And that was our whole goal.”
Smith’s club has added to the already rapidly growing presence of women in flag football. The NFL Football Operations Department reported in 2023 that 474,000 young women between the ages of 6 and 17 played flag that year, a 63% increase from 2019. This has led to the sport being sanctioned in multiple states, including Arizona, which allowed Smith to play in clubs during high school.
Although the team is off and running, Smith’s job is far from finished. She has a multitude of responsibilities to make sure her club is best set up to continue growing.
“Honestly, there's so much that goes into this,” Smith said. “I'm booking fields for practice, I'm doing budget plans, I'm managing and overseeing everything, I’m running our social media, I'm answering emails all day.”
Smith also had to recruit enough girls to play on the team as well as a coaching staff. When the club was approved last February, Smith went to work building the team. She posted on Instagram advertising a tryout for the team, and the reception was massive.
“We posted (a tryout) on Instagram and honestly, I didn't know how much attention it was going to get when we originally posted it, but we had about 75 girls come out for trials and now we currently have a roster of 25 athletes,” Smith said.
Smith then recruited her coaches from Club HBHF – Brian Coger and Jesse Pap – to coach her new team at ASU. Those two coaches have helped Smith develop, and she is grateful she is still able to work with them.
“They've mentored me and helped me grow as an individual,” Smith said. “I’m very loyal to them. I love them, and I’ve been with them for about four years now.”
Smith’s success in creating the club has been rewarding, but she wants more. She has a vision for her team to become a Division 1 organization with a schedule filled with other collegiate women’s teams in packed venues. But time and money are needed for that to happen. Smith encourages anyone who wants to support the team to donate or to simply show up to their games.
“What the Sun Devil community can do is come to games, support us and donate,” Smith said. “We really need the money. Funds are definitely something that is holding us back.”
Updates about the club team’s schedule and partnerships can be found on its Instagram page.
Although her vision is not realized yet, Smith is steadfast in her goals for growing her team and women’s involvement in the sport. For anyone who has lofty goals but doesn’t know how to start, Smith’s advice is simple: Just do it.
“If anybody wants to start a team, if anybody wants to do something, make a difference, just do it,” Smith said. “That was my whole thing. That was my whole mindset. Just do it.”