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For many of those athletes, flag football is more than a sport. It’s a chance to play a game they have always loved in a space that once felt out of reach.<\/p>\n
For Amina Sanchez, that love of football started in the front yard with her dad.<\/p>\n
“Me and my dad were always like, just going out in the front yard,” Sanchez said. “Most of the time I would want to say, like, can I get the football and throw?”<\/p>\n
Her dad taught her how to throw properly, eventually encouraging her to take that interest to the field.<\/p>\n
“So then I asked him and I said, can I join flag football?” Sanchez said.<\/p>\n
Sanchez is now one of nearly 40 girls playing for the Lady Roadrunners.<\/p>\n
Charlotte Cabello discovered the sport while scrolling through TikTok.<\/p>\n
“I just saw this girl. I just thought she looked really cool in what she was doing, and I just wanted to try it out,” she said.<\/p>\n
For Sinai Romero, football was already a passion.<\/p>\n
“I love football. Like, I’m a big football nerd,” Romero said. “And I know it’s hard for women to get in, like, tackle league, so I wanted to do something that’s close to that.”<\/p>\n
\nGrowing the game <\/p>\n
Founder and coach Eloy Cabello said the program’s rapid growth reflects the girls’ desire to challenge expectations.<\/p>\n
“It’s grown in the sense of young ladies wanting to do something that most people don’t see them doing,” Cabello said. “And so it’s driven them to prove people wrong, prove to themselves that they’re capable of playing in this sport.”<\/p>\n
The growth comes as opportunities for girls and women in flag football continue to expand.<\/p>\n
The sport is set to make its Olympic debut at the 2028 Los Angeles Games, bringing even more attention to a sport that has historically received less exposure than traditional tackle football.<\/p>\n
For one Lady Roadrunner, that opportunity has already opened a door she never expected.<\/p>\n
Jazzy Whaley said she originally planned to pursue a career in real estate. But after getting the chance to play football at a higher level, she decided to pursue the opportunity.<\/p>\n
“I was really just going to do real estate, but now that I got the opportunity to play football at a higher level, I want to take the opportunity,” Whaley said.<\/p>\n
Cabello said Whaley is one of the first female athletes in San Antonio to earn a college scholarship to play flag football. She will attend East Texas Baptist University next fall.<\/p>\n
Another player, Karalina Moreno has also received four scholarship offers from University’s across the country, including University of Chicago and Kingsville A&M.<\/p>\n
\nChallenges remain <\/p>\n
While the program is growing, Cabello said finding enough competition locally remains a challenge.<\/p>\n
“It’s a struggle every single day to try to find competition for my girls to play against,” he said.<\/p>\n
The Lady Roadrunners travel to tournaments in Austin, Dallas, Houston and even Alabama to compete against other teams.<\/p>\n
Cabello believes more competition and exposure could help accelerate the sport’s growth in San Antonio.<\/p>\n
“The more and more that the sport grows, I’m telling you, you’ll see it,” he said. “You’re going to see it in high schools pretty soon and it’s going to grow.”<\/p>\n
And the players aren’t just thinking about their own futures. They’re thinking about the girls who will follow them.<\/p>\n
Charlotte said she hopes younger girls will see older athletes succeeding and become interested in the sport themselves.<\/p>\n
Sinai sees the growth of girls flag football as the beginning of something bigger.<\/p>\n
“I think it’s a big opening, like a big opportunity for young girls to chase their dreams, especially in football,” she said. “So I think this is just like a start.”<\/p>\n
The Alamo City Lady Roadrunners will hold a hamburger plate sale from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 12, at 6035 NW Loop 410 in San Antonio.<\/p>\n
Proceeds will help the organization purchase equipment and fund tournament travel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Alamo City Lady Roadrunners flag football team flourishes as girls embrace the sport, challenging norms and paving…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1047781,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5133],"tags":[5229,7202,7203,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-1047780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-america","tag-san-antonio","tag-sanantonio","tag-texas","tag-tx","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117226703882070252","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1047780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1047780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1047780\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1047781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1047780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1047780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1047780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}