She’s next: Texans hold girls flag football regional tournament, four teams advance to state championships

HOUSTON – One of the Texans’ biggest initiatives for youth sports was on display Saturday at the Methodist Training Center.

The Texans held their regional girls flag football championship tournament with four teams advancing to the state championships June 13 and June 14 at North Texas in Denton.

That included Memorial and South Houston along with Texans squads from El Paso and Austin.

The Memorial Mustangs defeated Lamar and were led by Most Valuable Player receiver Daniella Valle.

“It’s everything,” Valle said. “These girls really mean a lot to me, especially since it’s the first season. Memorial is kind of breaking the barrier for women around the world,and girls for flag football. So it’s really meaningful.

“I’ve been kind of shy, but, now, being MVP, it means a lot that I feel like people are speaking loud and really have an influence on these girls on the team. All of us, from freshmen to seniors, football brings us together, all of us, and we just bond on that. It’s amazing.”

The Texans, led by chief community officer Hannah McNair, along with support from the Dallas Cowboys, want girls flag football to be voted in by the University Interscholastic League as an official statewide varsity sport in Texas.

June 10 is a key date as far as next steps for the initiative. That’s when the UIL legislative council will meet to try to promote a voting process.

“We really need all schools to kind of get behind this,” Texans foundation executive director Amanda Grosdidier told KPRC 2. “This is an opportunity for all schools. We’ve done surveys and 99 percent of the schools participating support sanctioning it as a sport. We did a survey through all superintendents in the state and currently we’re at 80 percent of those saying that they do support sanctioning for flag football.

“It’s awesome to watch and I love seeing these girls have this field to play on, to play where the Texans are and to see all of us embracing this wonderful sport. You can see all the families that are out here, the cheerleaders, the fans.”

Although the measure didn’t pass last year, there will be another vote this summer. There’s still a chance girls flag football will be voted in as an officially sanctioned sport in Texas.

“That would be amazing,” Valle said. “It’s just awesome. That’s really huge, having the Texans sponsor us girls.”

Aaron Wilson is a Texans and NFL reporter for KPRC2 and click2houston.com