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From powderpuff to a first-ever state championship, girls flag football is on the rise in Illinois

Lily Sarli of the Taft Eagles runs the ball during a Regional Championship flag football game between the Taft Eagles and the Loyola Academy Ramblers, at William Howard Taft High School’s football field on Friday, Oct. 11 2024. Sarli said playing flag football has brought her closer to her dad.
Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere
/
Chicago Sun-Times
Lily Sarli of the Taft Eagles runs the ball during a Regional Championship flag football game between the Taft Eagles and the Loyola Academy Ramblers, at William Howard Taft High School’s football field on Friday, Oct. 11 2024. Sarli said playing flag football has brought her closer to her dad.

Taft High School’s flag football players start by removing the studs and golden hoops from their ears. Then they apply war paint to their cheeks, holding a phone screen up as a mirror. With their mouth guards and soft-padded helmets on, they huddle around coach Germaine Padilla.

In a husky voice he shouts: “Do not flinch tonight. You make a mistake, you get right back at it the next play. Do you understand me?”

Silence.

“I’m not expecting a win, I’m expecting dominance tonight,” Padilla continues. “This is our house, girls. Let’s go put on a show. Hands up. Taft on three, 1, 2, 3, T-A-F-T.”

Padilla’s players sprint onto their home field as Taft’s marching band plays.

The Taft Eagles took on the Loyola Academy Ramblers under the Friday night lights on Oct. 11, before a crowd of more than 100 on Chicago’s Northwest Side. Taft’s 7-6 victory made the Eagles regional champions, and it was one more step toward what they hope will be a march to Illinois’ first-ever state championship in girls flag football.

A tall man wearing a hat and a blue pullover talks with a group of girls wearing sports gear sitting around him.
Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere
/
Chicago Sun-Times
Coach Germaine Padilla and the Taft Eagles celebrate their win over the Loyola Academy Ramblers on Friday October 11, 2024

Taft next plays New Trier on Tuesday night in the sectional semifinals, with the sectional finals on Wednesday. The state championship game is Saturday in Villa Park.

Girls flag football only became a high school sport in Illinois three years ago. Twenty-one teams signed up to play that year in Chicago’s first public school league. Padilla still remembers only six girls showing up for their first team try-outs. But this year, more than 60 girls asked to join Padilla’s team. He had to turn many of them down. There are now roughly 200 girls flag football teams in Illinois.

The Illinois High School Association recognized girls flag football as a state-sanctioned sport earlier this year, adding Illinois to a growing list of states that have done so amid a national wave of attention for the burgeoning sport.

Juliana Zavala, the director of sports administration at Chicago Public Schools, said it’s a clear sign girls “don’t want any more powderpuff games” during halftime at boys games.

“They want to have their own homecoming game,” she said.

Zavala said things are changing on the college level, too, with universities starting up their own flag football teams and offering players more scholarship opportunities.

Taft quarterback Maylin Nunez passes the ball to her teammate during a Regional Championship flag football game
Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere
/
Chicago Sun-Times
Taft quarterback Maylin Nunez passes the ball to her teammate during a Regional Championship flag football game

With the sport set to make its Olympic debut in Los Angeles in 2028, Zavala said she hopes to see some Illinois players eventually make the national team.

Many of Taft’s players got into the sport by playing with their brothers or watching football with their dads.

That’s how running back Lily Sarli first started playing, though she’s also tried track and soccer at Taft. Zavala calls her “twinkle toes” because she sprints so fast it looks like her hot pink shoes barely touch the turf sometimes.

Sarli’s dad was also a high school running back, and the duo now talk strategy ahead of her games. She said football has brought them closer.

“That’s how we connect,” she said.

Student athletes hold a blue banner that reads "REGIONAL CHAMPS"
Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere
/
Chicago Sun-Times
Student athletes with the Taft Eagles celebrate their win over the Loyola Academy Ramblers at William Howard Taft High School’s football field.

Friday night’s game against the Ramblers was a defensive struggle, ending with an interception to seal the Eagles’ victory. Students and parents in the stands stood to cheer when the clock ran out. On the field, Taft players raised a huge blue banner with the words “regional champs” on it, the war paint on their cheeks all smeared. Coach Padilla was awarded a large wooden plaque, which he lifted into the air like Rafiki lifts Simba in “The Lion King.”

Quarterback Maylin Nunez’s hands were still shaking from adrenaline long after the game.

“I feel so accomplished, especially because I’m doing it with my team,” the senior said.

Anna Savchenko is a reporter for WBEZ Chicago.