Flag football pioneers: New Mexico all-girls team headed to national championships in Ohio

A New Mexico flag football team will plant its flag as the first New Mexico all-girls flag football team to participate in an NFL flag championship tournament.

The girls team, called the Twisted Sisters, will travel to Canton, Ohio next month for the tournament.

The Twisted Sisters, made up of teenage girls, performed well on the field this spring, winning four of eight games against all-boys and co-ed squads in the NFL Flag New Mexico league.

The team gathered Monday at Santa Fe Village Park to run through drills ahead of their trip back East.

“I think (flag football) is important because it can build confidence to work up to higher things. It can (help with) your footwork or help you with other sports,” Halle Hunter, 13, a wide receiver and safety, said while at practice.

NFL Flag New Mexico

James Martinez and his friend launched NFL Flag New Mexico two years ago. The league, for youth ages 6 to 17, started with 55 teams and is closing in on 80 squads.

Martinez said his wife, Tia, wanted to get girls involved.

“We would like to see more girls playing a male-dominated sport,” she said in an interview with the Journal. “I would also like to see more female coaches out there.”

Tia recruited eight girls and formed the Twisted Sisters, which began play in the boys 14-and-under age group in the fall. Some of the girls are older than 14.

The Martinezes started another all-girls team this spring in the boys 10-and-under age division. Tia is the head coach for both teams while James and Don Jackson are assistants.

Twisted Sisters wide receiver Ava Gonzales, 17, expressed why it is significant for girls to play flag football.

“I think it’s important so that people can see that (girls) can do more than what they say we can, so just breaking the boundary of sexism,” she said.

James said the impact of an all-girls team representing New Mexico on a national scale is worth embracing.

“They are really the pioneers of what’s gonna happen in New Mexico with this sport going forward,” he said.

Road to Canton

The NFL Flag Championships in Canton will bring together over 280 teams of girls and boys from across the country.

The Twisted Sisters, who will participate in an 18U league at the championships, were invited by the Denver Broncos.

All 32 NFL teams will have representative squads at the event, which will be held at the Hall of Fame Village on July 19-21. Games will be broadcast on ESPN, Disney and NFL platforms.

The team has set up a GoFundMe to help with travelling expenses and is also looking for business sponsorships.

Flag football rules

Flag football rules vary from tackle football, though the goal remains the same: to score touchdowns.

In flag football, players wear a belt with two flags and players with the ball are “down” when a defender pulls one of the flags from the belt.

The offense and defense each play five players at a time on a 70-yard field. The offense has four downs to get to midfield, and another four downs to get into the end zone. A touchdown is worth six points and teams can choose to pass the ball from the 5-yard-line for a one-point conversion or choose to run or pass the ball from the 10-yard-line for two points.

There is no kicking in flag football.

Twisted Sisters flag football team gets ready for the youth flag football showcase