Alabama flag football tournament shows growth, popularity of sport
If you’ve wondered how girls flag football is doing in Alabama, all you had to do was be in Dothan’s Westgate Park on a recent Saturday and it would have been abundantly clear.
More than a dozen teams from all over Alabama participated in the 2025 Alabama High School Girls Flag Football Early Season Tournament. In all, 15 teams and 400 players and coaches participated in this year’s tournament. Compare that to nine teams and 180 participants a year ago, and the growth is evident.
The tournament was presented by the RCX Sports Foundation with support of the NFL and the Atlanta Falcons and sponsors like the Alabama Power Foundation.
Girls flag football is expanding rapidly, particularly at the high school and collegiate levels. It will even be included in the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
The evening before the tournament, the teams gathered at Izell Reese Community Center and showcased their skills in a party-like atmosphere on Grandview Field.
The community center’s namesake, Izell Reese, addressed the girls.
“I am such a fan of you all and what you get to do,” said Reese, a Dothan native, CEO of RCX Sports and president of the RCX Sports Foundation. “Nothing brings me more joy than seeing you all getting the chance to dream big and be a part of this game of football the same way I had a chance to.”
If Reese’s name sounds familiar, after playing football in high school in Dothan and in college at UAB, he was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys and played for the Buffalo Bills and the Denver Broncos in the NFL.
The NFL tapped Reese and RCX to help grow flag football across the country.
The Atlanta Falcons is the NFL franchise helping to grow the sport in Alabama. On hand at the tournament was the team mascot, Freddie Falcon, and Atlanta Falcon Cheerleaders.
“It means so much for us to develop the sport of football,” said Pedro Salgado, director of Youth Football and Legends Community for the Atlanta Falcons. “Girls flag football has grown so much not just across the state of Georgia, and, as you can tell tonight – not just in the state of Alabama, but across the entire nation. Our efforts are just to continue to grow this sport and develop these opportunities for these girls.”
Salgado said participation in a sport helps build the fan base, which is part of the reason the NFL wants to see girls participate more in flag football.
“We’re going to continue to push girls flag football,” he said of the Falcons organization. “We love the sport. We love the growth. And we love to see the opportunities it brings not just girls on the field but also off the field and the community it brings within each market.”
Reese said when RCX started organizing tournaments, he knew he wanted to have one in his hometown.
“This is home,” he said. “To have something like this in my hometown and where I’m from here in the state of Alabama, born and raised, and to be able to do something like this here is a dream come true.”
Finding willing partners to make it happen was also key, he said.
“It’s fortunate for organizations like Alabama Power to open doors and give accessibility – in this case for these young women who desire to play the sport,” Reese said. “It takes resources. So we’re all fortunate and grateful for Alabama Power and all of the work that they’ve done here in making this event possible and the continued support that they’ve given to youth athletes – in particular to this case to young women – and giving them the opportunity to continue to play sports.”
Alabama Power’s Southeast Division identified the tournament as something for the Alabama Power Foundation to support because of the opportunities for girls and the economic impact the tournament could have on the Dothan area.
“It’s a great opportunity to give back to the communities we serve, and it’s just a privilege to have it in the Southeast Division in Dothan, my hometown,” said Jason Davis, vice president of Southeast Division at Alabama Power. “Flag football is an up-and-coming new sport … and it is extremely popular.”
Davis said the tournament brings players, coaches, families and some fans into Dothan, boosting sports tourism. And seeing organizations like the NFL and a number of national sponsors support the expansion of the sport, it was important to support it locally.
“There is a lot of buy-in,” he said. “I’m proud that Alabama Power is the first corporate sponsor in our state to be a part of this. I’m just glad our company has stepped forward to take that opportunity.”
Dothan Mayor Mark Saliba agreed with Davis that the tournament has become a welcome event in Dothan.
“This is an awesome event for the city of Dothan and for the Wiregrass Region as well,” he said. “The collaboration from all of our partners, especially Alabama Power, who has been a big part of the city of Dothan, Alabama, and the Wiregrass area – they realize just how important it is to give back to our communities. It means so much to us because we can’t do it all alone. We have to be part of a community that gives back. We appreciate Alabama Power Foundation and all that they do for us.”
The growth of girls flag football at the high school level is the driving force, thanks in large part to it being a sanctioned sport by the Alabama High School Athletics Association.
“We’re excited to be one of the states that has sanctioned girls flag football,” said Tara Osborne, assistant director of the AHSAA. “We had 109 teams last year. We added 23 this year. I fully expect we will be over 150 next year.”
The Dothan tournament, which took place September 12-13, served as a way of helping the established teams get into the season and the new teams to get their feet wet playing against other competition.
“It means a lot because girls sports participation is actually declining,” Osborne said. “One thing I’ve become passionate about is, what can we do for our girls sports to start increasing again? Providing opportunities like this is it. I would love to see double the teams here next year.”
One of the new Alabama high school teams this year is the Greene County team in Eutaw.
Aaliyah Bonner is a senior who plays wide receiver and cornerback for Greene County High School girls flag football team.
“It’s always been a sport I wanted to try because we never really had it,” she said. “We’d see other schools and other countries have it and I always wanted to try it. So when they brought it (to Green County High School) I most definitely knew I wanted to be a part of this.”
Like many of her teammates, Bonner is also on the track team and basketball team.
“All of my sports fall in line and help me with the next sport,” she said.
Tracey Hunter is the head coach of the Greene County High School girls flag football team.
“We have been looking into it for a few years and finally it came into fruition. We’re excited about it and trying to see where it leads,” she said. “To get the opportunity to come down here and compete with different schools on different levels has been amazing.”
For her girls, the tournament and the sport offer another chance for student athletes to go to college and possibly even participate in the Olympics.
“It’s a growing sport and great opportunities are out there, so let’s grab them,” Hunter told her team.
Speaking of college, Alabama State University has the first Division I sanctioned women’s flag football team at an HBCU.
Tyrone Poole, another former NFL player, is the head flag football coach at Alabama State University and was at the tournament scouting for talent.
“I’m looking to build my roster,” he said. “I’m looking to build champions on the field and off the field.”
Poole said football and the NFL helped him on so many levels and he would like to see the sport do that for young women.
“You’ve got these young ladies, they want to accomplish the same things,” he said. “They want to maximize their athletic ability. I just feel like I have the expertise to give back to them the mindset, the spirituality, the mentality, the physicality that it takes not only just to get to the top, but to maintain and accomplish everything they want in life.”
He’s already witnessing it with the first player on his ASU squad.
Ki’Lolo Westerlund became a star when she appeared in the NFL’s flag football commercial during this year’s Super Bowl. Now, she is on the ASU team.
“When I was first granted the opportunity, it felt unreal,” Westerlund said. “To see this sport grow so much and just have this opportunity is amazing. These girls are exactly who I do it for.”
Westerlund started out playing volleyball but went to a flag football tryout and soon found a new favorite sport.
“The bond that I had with my teammates and the culture that we built and traveling to play the sport just made me love it even more,” she said.