When Dani Daproza started playing flag football as a freshman in high school, it was just a club sport. But this week, she committed to the University of Nebraska while becoming the first girls flag football player from New Jersey to sign with a Power Four school, and the first Jets Flag Elite athlete to receive a full-ride scholarship offer.
"I knew as soon as I started playing that I was going to fall in love with the sport," Daproza said. "But I didn't know it was going to take me this far."
'A Massive Leap'
Daproza was a part of the inaugural Jets Flag Elite team and is one of three athletes on the current roster to have been a part of the program, now entering its third season, since it launched in March 2025. This past season, Jets Flag Elite ranked No. 2 globally and won the We Run the World National Championship in August.
"I think this is a massive leap. This is just proving to girls that anything is possible right now," Jets Flag Elite head coach Mickey McDermott said. "It was kind of an awesome experience seeing Dani commit, but even cooler seeing our whole organization as in the girls being there, saying like 'I want to be next or hey this is possible, Dani has shown me that,' which was pretty cool and special to watch."
Flag football was added to the NCAA Emerging Sports for Women program and is on track to receive championship status pending a vote in January by all three NCAA divisions. Nebraska was the first Power Four school to announce the addition of women's flag football as a women's intercollegiate varsity sport, and it's the first sport the university has added since 2013. Nebraska will play its inaugural competitive season in the spring of 2027.
Liz Sowers, who previously started and guided Ottawa University's (KS) program to five championships, was announced as the Huskers' head coach in February and recruited Daproza.
"I think Nebraska is known for investing in people and not being afraid to be the first at something," Sowers said. "Just because it's a newer sport doesn't mean the standard is smaller. The standard is the same, and Nebraska is known for doing things the right way, and I love that from the start."
'It's Just Attack'
Sowers first noticed Daproza through Instagram videos and said the athleticism and passion she has for the game came through on tape.
"It's not just a smile, but it's everything that kind of embodies that smile and everything that surrounds it," Sowers said.
Before playing flag football, Daproza was a basketball player, and she credits her time on the court for her hand-eye coordination as a WR/DB.
"Her ability to get in and out of breaks, the acceleration, the ability to track a ball and high point it are some of the skills that's very hard to teach, which she excels very well at," McDermott said.
"Throw the ball to me, and I'm going to catch it," Daproza added. "I just love being on offense, catching the ball, even as a DB, a lot of it is just going up for the ball, finding the ball in the air and basically it's just attack."
'This is Real'
The Jets have been a driver of women's flag football, increasing opportunities for girls at every age. In 2011, the organization became the first NFL club to help launch girls flag football at the varsity level in New York City and in 2021, the Jets launched the first high school girls flag league in New Jersey. Most recently, The Betty Wold Johnson Foundation made an additional $500,000 investment at the direction of chairman Woody Johnson to the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Women's Flag Football League as it nearly doubles in size for its second season.
"I think the girls know that this is real, and it's not kind of what if anymore," said McDermott and two former Jets Flag Elite athletes are currently playing at ECAC schools. "It's more of that it's here and I could take advantage."
For Daproza specifically, the Jets Flag Elite team allowed her to find a pathway in the sport and Sowers a chance to recruit her.
"As soon as I stepped on the field with the Jets, they gave you the idea of where you could be in the future," Daproza said. "I fell in love with just knowing that I could play in college doing what I love to do."
"What the Jets have been doing is unheard of," Sowers added. "Film has been hard in general, seeing players is so hard as a coach to see everyone and the Jets even just sending them to tournaments alone is more than a lot of teams get and that's amazing to be able to put that on the stage that coaches can see."
