Flag football took her three years to learn and love. Now she gets to help the sport grow. Senior Sonya Chalil and Head Football Coach Scott Hermes work together, growing the flag football program sponsored by the Houston Texans. The Houston Texans fund numerous schools around Texas to develop flag football programs.
“I started in the summer after my freshman year,” Chalil said. “Once I started my sophomore year I had gotten asked by one of my family friends to just come out and try it.”
According to KUT News, the program was launched by the Texans in 2023 to help “create equitable opportunities for young female athletes in Houston.” KUT News said its goal expanded to helping make flag football an official Texas high school varsity sport.
“Coach Hermes emailed me in November of this past year of 2024 and he asked me if I knew anything about the new flag football program starting up and to kind of help him out,” Chalil said. “From that point on I’ve worked on getting girls interested and spreading the word.”
Chalil began to share the news as much as possible to try and gather a number of how many girls would potentially want to play. So far there are over 20 girls on the team, and Chalil is still looking for more who are interested.
“I’m excited for flag football because I feel like it would be a fun new sport for me to try, I’ve seen Sonya play and I think it’s cool,” junior Tierra Green said. “I decided to sign up because it looks like something I’d like to do and I’m excited to play a new sport.”
Chalil said she’s looking forward to how much the program is going to grow next year. Chalil said she’s grown to love the sport and community behind it.
“As someone who joined the flag football community somewhat recently, it’s been insane to watch how this amazing sport grew,” Chalil said. “When I joined about three years ago it was much less known than it is now.”
Chaili doesn’t know what this upcoming season is going to look like, but she’s excited for every game and opportunity to play.
“I know a lot of other teams and a lot of girls on the teams we’re playing against,” Chalil said. “There are some from Rouse High School who are on my actual flag team and I know some of the girls playing are on the [United States] national team. So, it’ll be fun competition and the games will be interesting.”
The next flag game will be next Wednesday, May 14. One game will be held against Hendrickson at the scoreboard and the other against Connally at the middle field. For more updates on the program along with the schedule. It can be found at @mcneil.girlsffb
