The flyer arrived home from school courtesy of her brother: Local league looking for flag football players.
Intrigued, Akemi Higa asked if she could play. She was just 5 at the time and could already throw the ball some 20 yards.
Many yards passing and TD tosses later, the 17-year-old quarterback from Hawaii/Las Vegas is part of a youthful wave within the U.S. women's national team pipeline this season. Not a total surprise, given the rise of flag football
and how the sport will make its Olympic debut at the 2028 LA Games.
This week, at a training camp in California, Higa will try to secure a roster spot to represent Team USA at the IFAF flag football world championships in Duesseldorf, Germany, later in the summer.
“More people are getting into it and more people are getting better at it,” said Higa, the strong-armed QB who's heading to Nevada State University to play flag football. "You start young and grow with the game — constantly learning new ways of playing the game.”
The average age (26) on the women’s team at this camp is younger by nearly two full years than it was even three seasons ago. What’s more, there are a half-dozen players on the roster under the age of 21.
On the men’s side, there's a youthful infusion, too. The average age decreased from 29.4 in 2024 to 28.6 this season, with a pair of 21-year-olds, receiver Jorge Cascudo Jr. and safety Justin McMullen, trying to make the squad for Germany.
The camp this week serves as a final evaluation process to whittle the roster from 18 players to a dozen. The men’s and women’s squads will also face Canada on Friday in Los Angeles as part of USA Football’s Rivalry Series.
Making the team means a chance to gain international experience, which can only help two summers from now when flag football takes the stage at the Olympics.
"That's in the back of my mind,” 20-year-old receiver/quarterback Maci Joncich said of the LA Games. “Every single day, everything I do is around that. I wake up and if I’m like, ‘You know what? I don’t really want to go for a run today. I don’t really want work out.’ In the back of my mind, it’s like, ‘Do you want to be an Olympian?’”
Higa is in the running for the QB spot after 45-year-old Vanita Krouch didn’t make the 18-person roster. Krouch, a dominant figure in women's flag football, has been dealing with a knee issue. She posted on Instagram: “Plain and simple, I was outplayed these last two training camps, and the women selected earned their spots.”
This Generation Z certainly knows their Xs and Os.
Higa grew up playing the game on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. Her family moved to Las Vegas in 2022 in order to capitalize on the growing popularity of the sport. Higa and her twin sister/receiver, Akiko, have been stars ever since. Over her career at Desert Oasis High School, Akemi Higa threw for 22,476 yards and 371 TDs. Higa, Joncich and Valentina Fanetti, a 21-year-old from New Jersey, are three of the QBs vying for spots.
“It’s crazy just to see how much growth the sport has had," Higa said, "and just how many girls are interested in it.”
More than 68,800 girls played high school flag football in 2024, which marked a 60% increase over the year before, according to a survey by the National Federation of State High School Associations.
What's more, women’s flag is on track to gain NCAA championship status. If all goes according to plan, a title game may take place in the spring before the sport makes its Olympics debut.
Lately, there have been some big names (Mark Cuban, Aaron Rodgers) making philanthropic investments in USA Football to support the women's game. The NFL is promoting the game, too.
Talent is being discovered from all over and across various sports. Joncich played basketball, soccer and tennis growing up before turning to flag. She's been part of the USA Football program since 2022.
Joncich recently signed with Cal Poly after playing flag football for the University of Florida club team. One of her best memories while there? A mom reaching out to say her daughter was doing a school project on Joncich.
“I sent her one of my jerseys,” Joncich said. “This is inspiring me to do better and inspiring me to do more things.”
The roster has a youthful look on the men's side, too. Cascudo and McMullen are trying to make a roster where the oldest player is quarterback Darrell “Housh” Doucette III at 36.
Cascudo has been around the game for a long time with his father, Jorge, a flag-football legend and now coach of the men’s national team.
“Growing up in Miami, all you hear is, ‘Your dad’s the GOAT. Your dad’s the Tom Brady of flag,'” Cascudo said. “Growing up, I didn’t know what that meant. Getting older, I started to see it.
"It’s just amazing to see the sport growing so fast.”
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