Jaylah Parker has vivid memories of tossing a football back and forth with her father when she was a young girl growing up in Woodbridge, Virginia. She never dreamed back then that she’d someday have an opportunity to compete on the gridiron with other young women as part of a university football team.
Fast forward 10 years, and the Radford University sophomore is now wearing a Highlander red No. 11 jersey while spiraling passes to teammates running slants, curls and corner routes.
“It’s fun to play quarterback, but you have to be very versatile,” the former high school volleyball and lacrosse player said of her new sport. “I try to get the ball out there to the receivers. There are long passes and short and quick passes. It’s a lot to think about out there on the field.”
It’s a fast game, too, explained Keith Pulliam, the head coach of Radford’s new club women’s flag football team, which kicked off its inaugural season in early March after months of classroom prep – that included cracking open an extensive playbook – and on-field practices.
Women’s flag football is one of the fastest-growing sports in the United States and around the world, with more than 30 states offering high school flag football for girls. Seventeen states have officially sanctioned championships. Some high schools in Virginia began offering the sport at the varsity level a year ago, with more expected to follow. The National Football League has made a significant commitment to growing flag football for female athletes with its NFL Flag 50 initiative.
Flowing into the jet stream of the sport’s momentum, Radford University established the Club Sports Federation to support elevated club sports, including women’s flag football, that align with the strategic initiatives of the university. Other sports in the federation included pickleball, men’s rugby, cheer, and skeet and trap. Radford University Athletics plans to advance the sport from club to varsity status before 2030, said Athletics Director Robert Lineburg.
“If you keep up with the news, you know flag football is growing,” said Pulliam, who was hired as Radford’s first head coach after serving as the youth development coach for the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings, teaching flag football’s rules and strategies to kids ages 6 to 18. “Radford is getting the ball rolling on women’s flag football in Virginia.”
In addition to coaching, Pulliam is the team’s chief recruiter, which means he meets and speaks regularly with many potential future Highlanders who are interested in not only playing flag football, but everything the university has to offer student-athletes.
“I tell them about our campus and academics, the mountains, the New River nearby, and what campus life is like,” he said while noting he recently talked with potential students as far away as England and Ghana. “Showing potential students all of those things makes it easier to persuade them to think about what’s possible at Radford.”
Adding to the roster would give the team much-needed depth for the seven-versus-seven competitions. At the beginning of the season, the Highlanders had only 13 players, meaning many had to play on the offensive and defensive sides of the ball, an exhausting endeavor for a young team.
Parker first learned about Radford women’s flag football at Club Fair at the beginning of the fall 2025 semester. “I was looking for a sport to play, and someone suggested I try flag football. So, here I am,” she said with a smile.
Like her teammates, Parker had little previous experience playing flag football. Most of them, however, have an athletics background.
“Some have played a little in high school at the powderpuff level, but most of them are just now learning the game during our practices and classroom sessions,” Pulliam said. “At the beginning, I was teaching the basics, like what is a receiver and what does a receiver do. They’re learning the game pretty quickly.”
The inexperience revealed itself at the team’s first-ever game, a loss on the road to a more established team in mid-March against Ferrum College, about a 70-minute drive from Radford.
“It wasn’t the greatest result,” admitted Kailyn Brawley. “We didn’t start off too hot, but as the game went along, we got the hang of it. But we continue to work on it in practice. We’ve been going over everything that went wrong and working on how to fix it.”
Practices are always a positive experience, Parker said. “We yell and scream and laugh and hype each other up,” the communication major said. “Our team is really good at being together and working together as a group. We take the game seriously, but we have a good time. We always go in with a winning mindset.”
Brawley is enjoying the experience with her teammates, but the former high school soccer and basketball player from Blacksburg, Virginia, is accustomed to winning, and she wants to help establish and build a winning culture for Radford women’s flag football. “We’re having fun right now, and I know winning isn’t everything, but I want to win. I want to help the team get better.”
So does her coach, an Army veteran and former men’s college football coach who has seen the ups and downs throughout his years of experience in student-athlete development.
“I understand that for the first year or two there might not be a lot of winning, even though I want to win and they [the players] want to win,” Pulliam said. “It’s still a process, and we’re making progress. I can definitely see this being a major program, just like the Radford women’s basketball team.”
Radford’s flag footballers have plenty of opportunities to improve this year, playing a slate of games and tournaments, including a mid-March tournament in Miami, Florida, and a season-ending tournament in early May in New Jersey. In between those competitions, the Highlanders have one home game scheduled for April 21 against Hollins University at the Student Outdoor Recreation Complex on campus. “Please come out and support the team that night,” Pulliam said, encouraging the campus community to attend the game and root hard for the home team.
Brawley is encouraged by the support the team is receiving already around campus from students, faculty and staff. “It shows how we are progressing by giving women an opportunity to play football,” said the receiver and defensive back, who wears jersey No. 15. “Growing up, some of the main sports for girls were soccer, basketball and volleyball, and a lot of my friends wanted to try football. It’s difficult to get into because it’s always just been a guy’s sport.
“But Radford is changing that by offering women’s flag football,” she continued. “It allows everyone to feel included, and no one should feel left out from the experiences you can get from sports.”
There’s a need for women’s flag football at Radford and beyond, Pulliam said, sitting in his office two days before his team’s first game. "There are many girls who have dreams of playing football growing up, and we’re doing our part to create that space for women at Radford University.”