Bishop Gorman senior varsity Flag Football players, Niah Waldman ‘25 and Grace Yager ‘25 were invited to DeLand, FL Jan. 2nd to attend the Under Armour Next Girls Flag Football All-American game at Spec Martin Stadium. The top 24 players in the country were flown out to Florida to compete against one another for the inaugural All-American game.
This kind of event has never happened before with girls and it was a chance for inspiration and motivation to occur. Usually these kinds of events are for men’s football only and this was the girl’s first chance at that spotlight. Waldman said that the main message at this event was, “don’t let anyone tell you can’t do something and don’t let anyone tell you no”. This kind of event allowed the top 24 flag football players in the nation to not only showcase their abilities to coaches but colleges, the country, and young aspiring athletes.
Along with inspiration, the players received specialized Under Armour cleats along with free merchandise from the event and a free plane ticket to Florida making the whole experience “unreal”. Yager described the experience as crazy as it felt “super VIP”. “I think whenever a big company for Under Armour does something for us as well as the boys it’s cool that company is willing to do that for us and it’s like being the first one to kind of get spoiled,” said Yager.
In Florida, the girls also got the opportunity to meet each other and create a “sisterhood”. Both Yager and Waldman said that they were grateful to even be considered in such a huge and amazing event. “It was very nice to see that flag football was being taken seriously because I feel like the biggest thing with it is people being like girls can’t play football or its not as good as boys but us seeing that we have the same opportunities with the Under Armour All-American game it was very rewarding and honoring to be apart of that,” said Waldman.
On the field, Yager and Waldman are hard-working and committed athletes who lead the Bishop Gorman women’s flag football team as captains alongside Leiana Juarez ‘25 and Bri Wagner ‘25. ”Grace works really hard for everything because she also plays soccer and does track and football too and she is able to balance all of that out and still be one of the best players on our team…Niah has volleyball too and they are able to balance both of it,” said Juarez. Juarez described her two friends as supportive and positive friends who have always been hard-working and determined on and off the field. “They bring positive energy to not only our friend group but to people on the team,” said Juarez.
Outside of being well-rounded athletes, Waldman and Yager they are scholar students balancing sports and a social life. Through all of it they are still “very hardworking but also really nice and fun”. “A lot of people on the team look up to them for being able to do that,” said Juarez.