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Girls just want to have fun.
And compete.
They’re doing both on the South Coast, with the launch of the second season of the GNB Girls Flag Football League.
With girls between the ages of 7 to 18, the league has expanded its number of teams and players from last year and includes athletes from across the region in two divisions based on age and skill levels. Each team plays eight games in addition to playoffs and a championship game. Played at Buttonwood Park in New Bedford on Saturdays, the spring season started last month and ends on June 27. A fall season will run from Aug. 18 to Oct. 11.
Krystal Resendes of New Bedford registered her daughter, Kennedy, for the first season. She praised the team environment and the leadership skills being taught in a family-oriented community setting.
“When girls are around other girls they feel more powerful and more heard with their ideas than they do in co-ed sports,” Krystal Resendes said. “They’re learning to trust and support each other. This program is building a girl-power mentality.”
“In my first season I got to meet and play with a lot of other girls,” said Kennedy, 10, a competitive dancer playing a sport for the first time. “Girls lift other girls up and we’re as competitive as boys. I’m telling all my friends about it.”
Flag football is snowballing in popularity. Last year, more than 30 states sponsored girls flag football teams at the high school level, and the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles will feature it as a medal sport. UMass Dartmouth will launch it as a club sport in January 2027, and it’s scheduled to become a varsity sport the following season.
The GNB league is supported by a grant from the United Way of Greater New Bedford, which provides equipment, and local businesses that supply the players with jerseys.
The league is the brainchild of Antwaun Murphy and Ceasare Roderick, New Bedford residents who grew up competing athletically and have emerged as local youth coaches and mentors. The pair talked with The Light about the benefits for the athletes on and off the field, the experience of coaching girls, their vision for the future and more.
New Bedford Light: What was the inspiration for starting this league?
Antwaun Murphy: Honestly, just hanging out at cookouts and being together. We all have girls and we have athletic backgrounds. We played in high school and I played at Assumption College. Just being at cookouts and hanging around with friends and our young girls who complete and are athletes. Flag football was going on all over the country and seeing that this area didn’t have anything of that nature, we decided to create a platform for our girls to be able to showcase their talent.
NBL: How is working with young female athletes similar and different from working with young male athletes?
Ceasare Roderick: The female athletes are a little more mature at the younger ages. They’re more attentive to detail, they’re very competitive. They catch onto new things and new skills very fast. They’ve got a competitive edge to them. It’s a little easier to coach the girls than the boys. Boys think they know a little bit more. They give off a little more resistance while the girls are more open to it. They pick up on the movements fast, they translate it onto the field. It’s an awesome thing.
AM: I can give an example. Just the other day we were starting off the season, and I said, “OK guys, bring it in!” and they said, “We’re not guys, we’re girls!” It was a small detail that the girls paid attention to, and it helped sharpen my coaching and communication skills. I’ve learned there’s different ways of getting messages across.
NBL: How much progress did you see in your first season?
CR: The progress was tremendous. We had girls who couldn’t even catch the ball or throw the ball and by the end of the season we had one-handed catches for touchdowns, girls doing tap drills and going up to catch the ball. It was amazing.
A lot of them were cheerleaders and dancers. You couldn’t tell who was an athlete until you see them on the field. It was truly amazing.
NBL: What are your hopes and ambitions for your second season?
CR: The first thing we want to do is create a strong community base, something that will last. So our first step is to offer an even playing field for all the girls in our area who have talent and like football. After that we want to be a bridge to the high school programs, because the (Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association) is going to have it as a high school sport next year. So we want to be that fundamental program, the building block program to eventually feed our local high schools and eventually get these girls to college.
AM: Not only that, we want to be a community-based organization that provides resources, including clinics for girls in the community. We want to go beyond playing the sport. We want to have classes on being a first-time home owner, and mental health clinics. More than just football, we’re going to be providing essential resources that could be helpful someday.
CR: We want to educate people on life skills beyond the sport. For example, we offer a lot of volunteer opportunities for people. Anything that’s team building, camaraderie, and community based.
AM: We’re going to be providing skills and drills clinics, a way to get these girls prepared for the season. We’re also going to be offering a travel program where the more skilled girls who want to try out for the team and if they make the roster there will be a higher level of training and more competitive tournaments where they will be representing the city.
NBL: Could you talk about the girls meeting the Patriots?
CR: It was wonderful. It was an event for season ticket holders and invited guests last August at Gillette Stadium. We were able to get down to the field early, and the girls were able to meet the players and be able to play catch with some of them, and get autographs and pictures.
NBL: Are there any skills or experiences necessary for girls to play flag football?
CR: The skill you have to have is wanting to be part of a team, to be part of something social. You have to have the skill of wanting to learn and wanting to compete.
AM: There’s absolutely no experience needed. This is a beginners’ program that is growing throughout the United States. For a lot of younger girls this is something that is new to them, and they’re intrigued. It’s got their attention and they’re giving it their all.
NBL: Are female sports becoming more popular in the U.S.?
AM: Yes. The WNBA just secured contract deals where they’re guaranteed millions of dollars. UMass Dartmouth just started a women’s flag football team. We’re able to provide these girls the option to play in college.
NBL: How would you say flag football is different from conventional football?
CR: It’s a lot different. The reason is in conventional football there’s a lot of contact and there’s 11 people on the field. With flag football there’s absolutely no contact in the game. You have to really work on your skills and your angles, being more attentive to the game. It’s easy to drop your hips and move and stuff like that, rather than just running in straight lines and making contact with somebody and hoping they hit the floor. So you have to be attentive to it, you have to be real creative with your plays and make sure you’re having fun.
AM: Recently there was a football game where they had the top flag football players against players from the NFL, and the flag football players blew them out. It’s two separate games. As Ceasare said, football is more physical with the helmets and flag is more elusive to say the least.
Flag is creative — you’ve got to use your brain and come up with ideas that traditional football doesn’t offer.
NBL: Do you ever see girls putting on the pads and getting more physical?
AM: There’s some all-women tackle football leagues already. I know there’s one in Connecticut. But as a country as a whole we’re moving away from contact, so I think we’ll see more women’s flag football. It’s now an Olympic sport, so girls will be going further with it.
Do I see the pads someday? Mmm, no. But could we do more upper body contact? There’s something called flex football where you can wear pads on the shoulders and from the waist up and start blocking. I think it’s a few years from that.
Sean McCarthy is a freelance writer and frequent contributor to The New Bedford Light.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
