Over a year after Illinois Wesleyan University announced plans to start a women’s flag football program, the team has begun their pre-season scrimmages and is preparing for their upcoming season starting in March 2026.
Led by coach Melissa Valenzuela, the Titans are excited for the upcoming season.
“Coach V did a really good job of recruiting and finding people with good skill sets,” first-year Kimani Glasper said.
Glasper, who is also on the wrestling team, added that flag football is a fun sport and worth the commitment.
“Flag football opens up opportunities for young women’s bodies, minds and hearts in ways usually made unavailable,” Valenzuela said.
Valenzuela used the metaphor of an ancient Japanese pottery technique called Kintsugi, the concept of fusing broken pottery with gold lining to create something new and beautiful. Players learn from their mistakes (or cracks) and improve – hence the gold lining.
Valenzuela said the concept can be applied to all sports, but especially flag football, because of how the sport has been pushed aside by society, especially being neglected compared to its male (flag and non-flag) counterparts.
Despite the lack of widespread support, Valenzuela observed her team to be brilliant, smart, poised and aggressive.
“This flag football team is making history by showing that IWU is ahead of the game when it comes to providing young women with more ways to be athletic,” first-year Claire Anderson said, “It’s a unique experience because everyone, including the coaches, are doing this for the first time together.”
Introduced as IWU’s 27th sport on Oct. 10, 2024, flag football is the fastest-growing sport among high school athletes and is also being incorporated into the Olympics in 2028.
The sport isn’t an official NCAA-backed sport yet, but its popularity is growing among colleges. IWU was the first school in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin to add the sport, one of three so far (joined by North Park and Millikin.)
The Titans will participate in the Chicago Bears Tournament in Lake Forest, Ill., on Mar. 7-8 before facing a familiar face, North Park, in Chicago for the CCIW’s (unofficial) debut women’s flag football game.
The team will then play seven more games before their first home match on Mar. 28 against Illinois College.
