Girls Under-6 Rams player Manhattan Farrell (right) snatches the flag off of Chargers player Mila Kleintop (left) during the inaugural season of the Beach Cities Sports Girls Flag Football league at Redondo Beach, CA on March 25, 2023. (Photo by Gil Castro-Petres, Contributing Photographer)
It was a huge day for women’s sports. The Beach Cities Sports youth flag football league just introduced its all-girls division.
GBCS, an offshoot of the 14,000-player BCS primarily boys flag football league, officially launched Saturday, March 25, at Redondo Union High School.
The Chargers and Rams teams, made of girls ages 9 to 11, kicked off the first game for the league opening. Four games with the rest of the 125 players, 6 to 12 years old, followed throughout the day.
“This is a monumental day in women’s sports, possibly the most important day in the history of this league,” BCS president Alexi Waul said during Saturday’s opening ceremony. “From this moment on, never let anyone tell you you can’t do it, girls aren’t allowed to play, or this is not a girls’ sport.”
As the players warmed up, the NFL Chargers’ drumline, the Thunderbolts, played a few songs and did a drumroll leading up to the first kick. Folks on the field threw Chargers logoed t-shirts and foam balls to the crowd in the bleachers, and players jumped, cheered and waved to their families in the stands.
The Rams scored the first touchdown of the opening game.
“I feel a sense of pride; I think that’s going to really hit me tomorrow,” Waul said in an interview a day before the opening.
The community needs to see that this matters, Waul added.
“I’m looking forward to seeing these girls enjoy themselves in a competitive environment and be involved in the football culture — a culture they’ve been restricted from for a long time.”
The California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) last month voted to make high school girls flag football an officially sanctioned sport in the state. But BCS had their new league in the works a year ago, Waul said, with a goal to launch this spring.
When Waul became the organization’s president in 2019, he said, he knew his goal was to grow the size and scope of BCS. The league was founded in 2008 by a group of local dads, who Waul said never imagined BCS would become what it is now.
“I wanted to grow, especially with the girls,” Waul said. “We have a history of girls participating in the league, playing alongside the boys, but I had a feeling there are probably some girls who’d love to be involved but are maybe a little intimidated by playing with the boys; if there’s a space they can do this with other girls, it might be better.”
Womens’ sports has always had to fight this uphill battle for engagement with fans and funding from the institutions they exist in, among other things, Waul said. And at BCS games, you often see sisters of the players in the stands watching from the sidelines and their level of engagement as a spectator; “I wonder if they want to play, too.”
“We have an opportunity: How can we blaze this trail (and let girls know) you can play football and you don’t have to be restricted to ‘womens’ sports’ in our society,” Waul said.
Raising two sons himself, Waul added, “It was important not only for the girls but also the boys in this community to see that girls can do this, are capable and can have fun with it.”
On Saturday, Nancy Fosmore, mother of 8-year-old Aria Fosmore who plays on GBCS’ Bills team, wore a t-shirt with their last name and her daughter’s number, 86, on the back. Looking up to her older brother who plays in BCS got Aria interested in the game, Fosmore said.
“She used to play with the boys league, but she’s a lot smaller so I think she felt as the kids were growing she felt more intimidated to play with the bigger boys,” Fosmore said.
When the family learned of the all-girls’ league, Aria, who attends 156th Street Elementary in Gardena, didn’t want to participate, Fosmore said, but they signed her up anyway.
“She got super excited,” Fosmore said. “She got her pink gloves and cleats; she was ready and I think she felt more connected to her brother and all of us as a family because she got so used to just going to her brother’s games.”
Alonzo Ramirez, father of Mia Ramirez,11, who plays on the Rams, said his daughter always plays football with her boy cousins recreationally, and jumped into the sport on a competitive level when GBCS started up.
“She was really excited,” Ramirez said. “There was no hesitation about wanting to do it.”
Mia, a 5th grader at Beryl Elementary, also recruited two of her soccer teammates to join her in registering.
“Now she’s showing a real interest,” Ramirez said, and will “potentially play in high school when she gets there in four years.”
Steve Rivera, head of marketing for BCS, initially got involved by signing his 10-year-old twin daughters up for the boys league.
“I was playing football with my kids every day,” Rivera said in a Friday, March 24 interview. “They signed up for BCS last year when they got the flag football bug, but my girls left and said ‘we’re not feeling it, we want more of our girls out there.’”
“The fact that there’s over 125 registered athletes in the first season is a testament to how much this league was needed and wanted in this community,” Rivera said.
In a frantic search for an all-girls league that turned up nothing, he added, an email from BCS about the new GBCS offshoot finally came through.
“I was ecstatic,” Rivera said. “I signed them up, they were pumped, and I signed up to coach.”
The girls started pre-season practice last month, and the league began with a skills clinic in January in which potential participants could decide whether to register.
“It went over fundamentals of the game, made sure it was approachable in case of any apprehension any girl might have about it,” Waul said. “I think it really spurred the energy.”
BCS and GBCS will play their championship games at SoFi Stadium. Registration for the fall season opens right after that, June 17.
The league has also started bringing athletes from local schools including RUHS and Serra High in Gardena as assistant coaches and other support roles.
Girls can still play in the BCS league, per the BCS’ website, and are encouraged to play in both the boys’ and girls’ leagues simultaneously if they desire.
The league, although primarily made up of beach cities players, touts players from all over Los Angeles County, and some from Orange County.
Waul said he thinks that’s because the volunteer coaches and staff are “about as involved as it gets.”
“We put a lot of energy into it,” he added. “It’s special to me, it’s more than just a youth league.”
“I see it as a watershed moment for the community,” Waul said of GBCS’ launch.
The NFL is leading a campaign across the country for other states to follow in CIF’s footsteps, and the International Olympic Committee, too, is considering adding flag football to the upcoming 2028 Olympic Games.
Waul said the country is at an interesting juncture of football in genera.
“The NFL has put a lot of focus on flag football because it’s a safer alternative to tackle football (and is still) entertaining,” Waul said.
But “what’s missing in that picture,” Waul added, “is the youth movement to participate in the sport before the high school level.”
BCS and the new GBCS is an integral part of sports development for women, he said.
Travis Burnett
A pioneer in the flag football community, Travis helped co-found the Flag Football World Championship Tour, FlagSpin and USA Flag. Featuring 15+ years of content creation for the sport of flag football, creating and managing the largest flag football tournaments on the planet, coaching experience at the youth and adult level as well as an active player with National and World Championship level experience.
