The inaugural season of the ECAC/Jets Women's Flag Football League is set for a furious finish to regular season play over the next two weeks. Then the league's best eight teams will arrive at the Atlantic Jets Training Facility on May 2-3 to compete for a championship and ownership of "The Betty" trophy which honors Betty Wold Johnson's enduring spirit of compassion, service and meaningful impact.
Jets at the Forefront of Girls Flag Football
After another full weekend of action, Marymount is 10-2 and in third place in the ECAC with a .833 winning percentage. The league, which is the largest of its kind at the collegiate level, was launched with the support of the Jets and a $1 million investment from The Betty Wold Johnson Foundation.
"I've been involved with flag since 2006 and I've seen what Woody Johnson and the Jets have done with the high school girls and now what they're doing with the college girls and then eventually women, which is going to be great," said Wagner HC Thomas Deangelis said. "With the ECAC, it's been nothing but a pleasure to deal with Dan [Coonan], Cathy [Prisco] and anybody else who has been involved. They really put it together and they put it together quick and they've done a great job. Mr. Johnson and the Jets have been at the forefront of girls and women's flag football and every other organization -- especially the teams in the NFL -- should follow what the Jets are doing."
Fifteen colleges are competing in the inaugural flag season while eight will compete for the championship next weekend. Wagner, which also has a .833 winning percentage, is 5-1 and will have a loaded schedule over the next two weeks. All teams will play at least 12 conference games prior to postseason action.
"There have been three players who have been really leading us," Wagner's Deangelis said. "Cecilia Carrara is our best receiver and free safety. Ava Martinez was just voted Player of the Week -- she had 20 tackles in one game last week. And then our quarterback, Sophia King. It took a little while to get it going even though we have a winning record, but now she's clicking on all cylinders. She knows what we want, she sees down field a lot better than she did earlier in the season and she's been putting numbers up and the numbers obviously have been helping us win."
'Young Ladies Deserve This Sport'
The growth of girls flag football is an international success story. Marymount's Tahira Semper spent her childhood living in the twin islands of Trinidad and Tobago. After participating in several sports including swimming, netball, cricket, lawn tennis, track and field, soccer, volleyball, and badminton, Semper contacted Marymount's coaches about their team. She was not going to be denied, and many days wakes up at 4:00 a.m. to catch her bus and train to attend the team's 6:30 a.m. practices. Semper then goes to class and works at her job on campus.
"She had been in high school in Trinidad and Tobago," said Marymount's HC Rivera of Semper. "While she was born in the US, she spent most of the last number of years, in grade school and high school in Trinidad and Tobago. So, she really hadn't seen the evolution of the sport. She came here and tried it and she loved it. She's a contributing member for us and it just goes to show that it's a great sport and you don't have to have a lot of experience to kind of get involved and start playing. You can learn pretty quick if you are a go-getter and you are an athlete."
The ECAC Women's Flag Football League is not only being enjoyed by the student-athletes, but the countless young girls who are attending games and seeing possibility.
"I also coach by St. Joseph-by-the-Sea, it's a high school in Staten Island," said Deangelis. "Obviously Wagner is on Staten Island, so we hear a lot about it. Young girls are coming up to the games. They're out there and they're watching and they know what's coming. They know more scholarships, more schools. Everything's moving forward which needs to be. These young ladies deserve this sport, and they love this sport and anything they can get, especially money wise to help them pay for college.'
Under Woody Johnson's leadership, the Jets in 2011 became the first NFL Club to help launch girls flag football at the varsity level with the liftoff of a PSAL league in New York City. The PSAL flag program has expanded to 60 teams. Then in 2021, the Jets and Nike launched the first high school girls flag league in New Jersey. More than 260 girls' flag teams have been funded with 7,500 girls participating. Girls flag became a varsity sport in New York State in 2024 and is set to become a varsity sport in New Jersey in 2026. Johnson, Jets president Hymie Elhai and vice president of community relations Jesse Linder pointed to the creation of the ECAC league as the critical next step.
"I have many athletes who play other travel sports, and they would say this is their favorite sport but there was no path for them," Rivera said. "There was no high school and certainly no college and certainly no Olympics, but where I'm feeling most gratified with this is players and parents are seeing a pathway here as this being a sport the girls can play for a long time -- play in high school, play in college, get college scholarships. That wasn't an option, that wasn't even on the radar for many, many years and it's finally flipping."
'It Is History'
The ECAC's first-year flip will culminate with an exciting playoff staged among eight teams at the Jets training facility. Next year, the ECAC will add more members and will host its postseason at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ.
"Mr. Johnson and the Jets recognized early that this was going to be special, this was a unique opportunity, and they jumped on it and went all-in," Rivera said. "I'm not looking to disparage any other teams, but the Jets have from what I see the most involved, the most committed, the most all-in, the most generous organization. It's really been impressive with what the Jets have done. They saw it early and they were right. They were all-in and they are still all-in."
Only one ECAC team will be crowned a champion on May 3 and take home "The Betty." But everyone will have reason to celebrate a sport that has no ceiling and will make its Summer Olympics debut at the Los Angeles Games in 2028.
"I started with a league on Staten Island in 2006 and a couple of years they allowed me to start the all-girls division," said Deangelis, the Wagner HC. "We started against the boys and then I formed an all-girls division. Currently we have over 900 girls in the league just on Staten Island alone. That's what I'm going to reflect on -- my daughter coming to me and saying, 'Dad I want to play.' My daughter currently is 23. She wasn't able to play flag, but these young ladies that are coming up now have chances to play at every level including college."
Just last month, the NFL announced that is partnering with TMRW Sports to develop and operate a professional flag football league for women and men. More than 100 colleges and universities across the country offer women flag sports programming and the ECAC and the Jets will experience another historic moment to culminate a successful first year of the largest women's flag football league in the nation.
"We try to impart that on them like you guys are doing something really special here," Rivera said. "I think it's hard for them to appreciate that. I think when they walk onto the Jets facility and they see the teams and everything that is going on there and they're in the playoffs -- I think that's when it really hit them. Hopefully, they'll take it all in and be super excited and grateful to be a part of it because it is history."
