With the fall semester in full swing, many infographics and flyers are plastered around the 5Cs, each pitching its patron to students passing by. One club, the Womxn’s Flag Football team, has begun to gain traction due to its inviting community and tagline: “Do you ever watch football and wonder what it would be like to play it yourself?”
Hoping to continue to grow flag football’s presence on campus, the Womxn’s Flag Football team, founded in the fall of 2024, is gearing up for their first year of play in the National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association (NIRSA) Club Flag Football League. As co-founder of the club, Isa D’Amario-McShane PZ ’27 explained how the team was born following a 2024 email from the Pomona-Pitzer athletics.
“The administration had been thinking about it for a bit, and they sent out a poll my sophomore year to students asking if they would be interested in the formation of a flag football team,” she said. “I was one of the many people who responded and ended up going to some of the practices hosted.”
For D’Amario-McShane, the club represented a space where she could enjoy the sport she had long loved and wished to play.
“I was interested, along with a lot of the other co-captains, in flag football because we watched football growing up and came from football families,” she said. “I always watched my brother playing football and his games… I was always sad that there was not a space where I could play because I didn’t want to be playing with men, let alone a contact sport, with them.”
Fellow team co-founder, Lucía Brunelli PO ’27, similarly appreciated having the opportunity to be involved in the growing sport.
“More than just being able to play football, as a woman and as an international student, I never had many opportunities to play flag before and be involved with the sport,” Brunelli said. “So, I took the initiative and signed myself up to be part of the leadership team and I discussed with [the] co-captains about what the club was meant to be.”
Both co-captains highlighted the deeper importance of creating this space within a male-centric sport, emphasizing the importance of expanding beyond gender norms.
“I feel like playing with men in male-dominated leagues can be difficult sometimes because you often don’t have the respect that you would in female-heavy sports,” D’Amario-McShane said. “You feel like you’re representing all women when you’re playing a [male] sport. You’re scared to mess up because you feel like they’re going to be like, ‘this is why we can’t play with women.’”
For member Suchitra Anand PO ’27, the team’s low-stakes practice atmosphere allows members to meet the sport at their comfort level.
“If you come in and you want to do your best today, that’s fine,” Anand said. “But if you also don’t feel your best, just showing up is already half the battle, and we appreciate that you’re here … you can do it to the best of your ability, and no one’s gonna pull you aside and be like, ‘why aren’t you trying your best?’”
This year marks an important step for the team, being the first in which they will play in a formal league.
“Before that, it was just kind of contacting anyone that had been remotely a flag football team,” D’Amario-McShane said. “So I feel like this is kind of our first official season in many ways.”
As the team gears up for their first games in January, they continue to lean on the inclusivity and team culture that has allowed them to flourish thus far. Looking ahead, the club hopes to grow the sport’s presence on campus and beyond.
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