A new sport is coming to campus: a women’s club flag football team. Flag football, a sport recently gaining national traction, is a safer, non-contact variation of football where, instead of tackling, a defender removes one of the flags that every player has attached to their waist.

Ellie Carter ’28, one of the co-captains of the club, commented on the growing popularity of flag football in an email to the Orient.

“[Flag football is] definitely a growing sport, particularly with the new NFL support. More and more opportunities for high schoolers to showcase their talent are opening up, and more and more colleges are offering it as a varsity sport,” Carter wrote.

Eva King-Senior ’28, who founded the club alongside Carter, Dani Musry ’28 and Bea French ’28, explained that she originally had the idea to start the club before coming to Bowdoin.

“I played throughout high school, and I just really wanted to bring that here. So the summer before I got here, I reached out to the Athletics Department.… It took all of freshman year to get it, [but] we had it confirmed by April,” King-Senior said. “[It took a while because] adding a new club sport is difficult with field space and just convincing [the department] that it is needed, and it will have traction and people because it is such a new sport, and a lot of colleges don’t have it yet.”

Flag football is unique due to the variety of positions it has, with each position requiring a different skill set.

“Even in high school, there was a really big mix of the types of girls that played because you don’t need one specific skill set. You don’t need to be super athletic, and if you’re on defense, you don’t need to run as fast or things like that, so I feel like a wide range of girls can really connect through the sport,” King-Senior said.

Carter recalled her experience playing flag football at her high school in Atlanta and the game’s capacity to foster community due to the its relatively new popularity.

“I loved my time on [my high school’s] flag team, not only because of the sport itself, but also the community it created. Everyone joining the team had basically no prior experience, so we were all learning together, and I think that created a unique environment unlike many other competitive sports,” Carter wrote. “Rather than half the team having played since they were two years old and the other half just starting, everyone was learning, growing and making mistakes together, which fostered a very supportive environment.”

The hope is that the club team will bring this same sense of connection to Bowdoin as well, especially through the opportunity for athletes and non-athletes to come together.

Musry, who has been working on recruiting students and the logistics of the team, spoke on this potential.

“[The club composition is] a combination of athletes and non-athletes, which I think is something really special, because at Bowdoin, there tends to be a divide sometimes,” Musry said. “Once we start practices, people will be friends, taking away the titles of athlete and non-athlete, and bond together for the common good, and that’s something I’m really excited about.”

King-Senior emphasized the importance of club sports as an opportunity to stay active in a low-stakes environment, also echoing the potential of the team to build connections.

“I think club sports are important because Bowdoin’s workload is demanding. So just having the flexibility of, ‘Okay, if I don’t make this practice, it’s not the end of the world, I’m not going to ruin a game.’” King-Senior said. “I grew up my entire lifetime playing sports, and this was the longest I’ve not been on any sort of team. So just having that form of expression, moving around, exercising and meeting people … [and] being able to make friends while working around your busy schedule, because it’s only three times a week, [is exciting].”

With two team dinners already under their belt and the first practice scheduled for November 4, club leaders have started to think about intercollegiate meets with Princeton University, Duke University, University of Virginia, University of Maryland and others. Musry talked about her excitement for the upcoming season.

“There’s a lot of interest, and a lot of people signed up,” Musry said. “A lot of people have reached out, and they’ve been super excited about [the team], which makes me really optimistic for the future.”