Flag Football Professional Inspires Youth Team

Flag Football Professional Inspires Youth Team

By: Ari Christine

Imagine a room full of young people interested in football, but not immediately aware of opportunities to engage in the sport. Now picture a football professional, not only willing to share tales from the game, but also poised to teach the basics with a devotion to detail.

The room is full of elementary and middle school aged girls. The professional, exposing these girls to a “whole new world” of possibilities is 2018 US National Team player and Gold Medalist, Dacia McGowan. Her team - Lady Havoc.

In 2011, McGowan a Dallas native joined a league that offered both men’s and women’s football. She played for the Lady Stallions and was later invited to play for the travel team Adrenaline. The league offered both men’s and women’s football. She served as a dominate cornerback for the women’s team, a position which would herald her to success around the country and beyond.

When Antoine Fletcher, founder of the local Havoc organization, decided to expand the youth organization to include girls’ flag, he called on the expertise of his former players. The organization boasts baseball, basketball, soccer, tackle football and flag football for both girls and boys. McGowan would prove to be the ideal candidate to coach a girl’s flag football team.

Football has always been second nature for McGowan. While the accomplished basketball player found great success on the court as both a high school and collegiate athlete, she has always had such an affinity for football. For the 41-year-old – football opportunities for girls were nonexistent while she was growing up. Still, she studied the sport, engaged in the game however she could and never lost hope for the chance to play.

When the opportunity to coach girls flag football was presented, it didn’t require much convincing. McGowan took immediate interest in an opportunity to expose girls in her community to an evolving sport.

Flag Football has grown in popularity over the last few years, gaining the attention of professional athletes around the world. Colleges and universities now offer scholarships for flag football. And of course, USA Flag Football will be recognized as an Olympic Sport in the 2028 Olympics to be held in Los Angeles.

Lady Havoc is composed of 12 girls, ranging in age from eight to 11 years old. The team is fresh off a run to the highest level of competition in flag football - USA Flag

World Championships. Together, the group of girls competed against the most accomplished teams in the sport while in Tampa, Florida. While they came up short in the quarter final game – the team is already poised to take on season three.

Lady Havoc plays in the Texas Sports League, which affords them a five-week league experience and then playoffs. McGowan, however, makes it a point to involve her team in tournaments so that they can continuously improve on their skills. The team practices just twice per week during the season, as most of the girls are active athletes with their respective schools.

“Practice is very intentional for my girls,” McGowan insists. “We do warm-ups, stretching, run routes and we run through actual drills.”

McGowan is very much the technical coach who prides herself on starting from scratch with the team. Coaching girls in football is very different from coaching boys. Many girls don’t have the football foundation because they just haven’t played football.

“Whenever I first say “man” defense I’m certain to have one of the girls correct me that she isn’t a man,” McGowan laughs. “I walk them through the true basics of the game, but I’m always so happy to watch their growth.”

The growth is definitely evident as the team recently wrapped up its second season of play. The trip to Tampa was an opportunity for the team to bond, ask questions and experience a heightened level of competition. The trip to the World Championship ended with Lady Havoc facing the highest seeded team. McGowan’s team lost in overtime by just one point.

“By the time we reached that final game, everyone out there was rooting for us,” McGowan says. “All the other teams were from Florida, and everyone was shocked to see this new and exciting team from Dallas. To take the best team to overtime and lose by a single point makes me so proud.”

The tournament was a first for the entire team, but for many of the players - the trip to Tampa was their first plane ride. Fortunately, McGowan has total buy-in and support from the parents. All but two parents were able to accompany the team on this trip. The bonding time and the memories created prove to be priceless experiences for these young people.

Working with young people requires a great deal of responsibility. As a coach, McGowan must deliver expectations of financial obligation with parents. There is the business of insurance, reserving fields for both practice and play, and of course the expense of uniforms. Again, she considers herself very fortunate to have parents and team moms who support their daughters’ ambitions with flag football.

McGowan is very much the pioneer in flag football, and she is very adamant about seeing the sport through to its fullest potential. To date, many people are still unaware of what flag football entails. This will soon change, as large school districts are now on board to introduce Girl’s Flag Football in high school.

“It has always been important for me to create opportunities for girls in sports,” she says. “To know my girls can compete for scholarships at prestigious universities and have opportunities to travel the world with the sport – that means the world.”

McGowan is still active as a flag football player herself. On several occasions, much to the delight of her team – they’ve been able to watch their coach in action.

“Everything I tell them to do, they can observe me doing just that,” she says. “I’m not one of those coaches telling them to do something I can’t do.”

There is no monetary compensation for Coach McGowan, who has both a full-time and a part-time job. She does this because she loves the idea of girls succeeding in sports. She is thrilled that more and more opportunities are availing themselves for girls who play the sport that she loves so much.