FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — Diana Flores sat at the front of the Atlanta Falcons' team meeting room, looking out at a sea of nearly 60 girls invited to the Falcons' facility Saturday to represent their high school flag football teams in the GACA All-Star Games presented by Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. The event marked the finale of a weeklong celebration highlighting the achievements and rapid growth of girls flag football across the state.
Flores is the quarterback for Mexico's national women's flag football team. She has won two gold medals in the sport, representing her home country at the World Games in 2022 and 2025. On Saturday, Flores shared her story with Georgia's top players — how she went from not being allowed to play the game to becoming one of the sport's premier figures.
"It's the journey that shapes you," she said. "It's the journey that really sticks with you."
Sitting in the Falcons' meeting room, Flores reflected on how far the game has come since her childhood in Mexico City. Back then, she and her teammates brought trash bags to a practice field covered in dirt and debris. They had to clean the field themselves before they could use it. Meanwhile, the boys' teams practiced on grass fields.
"I almost can't believe where we are today when looking back and seeing where we came from," Flores said. "Nobody talked about the sport. Nobody knew what it was. Nobody believed in the game. And now, thanks to organizations like (the Falcons), people who believed in maybe what even we couldn't see or imagine years ago, it's now a reality. It's going beyond what we could have ever dreamed."
Thanks to the efforts of Falcons owner Arthur M. Black and the Falcons community, the sport of girls flag has exploded across the state of Georgia, as well as Alabama and Montana, too. At the high school level alone, the state of Georgia went from not having a single girls flag team in 2017 to now having over 300 high schools offering girls flag state-wide. That means more than 11,000 girls in Georgia now have the opportunity to play a sport that was once unavailable to them. With grants, showcases and clinics, the Falcons organization paved a way for girls flag to become a sanctioned sport in Georgia and Alabama, with Montana not far behind.
Other NFL teams and the league at large got involved in pushing girls flag football not too long thereafter. In 2025, there were about 40 NCAA schools offering women's flag. That number is expected to rise to 60 programs this spring, and the explosion is just beginning as flag football for both women and men will debut as an Olympic sport in the 2028 Los Angeles Games.
Flores has been a woman in the room of those discussions to grow the game. And according to her, flag football doesn't grow into what it has become by happenstance. It's not an overnight success. It is a grassroots movement that was nourished with hard work.
"It wouldn't have happened at all if it wasn't for programs like this existing," Flores said looking out to the high school girls holding onto her every word. "By the time we started talking about (flag football being in the Olympics), the numbers were there, the intention was there, the exposition was there. We had all of this data, all of these initiatives to back the movement up to make the people of the IOC know that yes, this game has a future."
That future, Flores said, is now and it is bright that ever because the game is finally getting "the respect it deserves."
"Girls," Flores said smiling to the room, "the opportunity you have right now not only to inspire, not only to live your passion but to lead the future generations and re-shape what it means to be a girl in flag, what it means to have big dreams and not only dare to dream big but to act and make a difference and be loud, it's huge.
"... I guarantee you that every decision you make, every step you take is not only for you. It is creating an impact in girls you don't even know yet, in people you may not ever meet in person. Everything we do creates this path that goes beyond just us."
Editor's note: This story will be updated with game recaps and highlights from the four GACA All-Star games being played Saturday at the Falcons facility.
