Throughout 2025 season, the Commanders' Youth Football arm was hard at work leading initiatives to grow the game of girls' flag in our backyard and beyond. Check out some of the events and special moments the team put on to improve access, level up resources and more for the sport on the rise:

Establishing and fine-tuning the fundamentals

Showing how fun and beneficial girls' flag can be means equipping all involved with the right tools and information. To prepare for several counties' inaugural seasons and build on early successes for others, the Commanders put on several learn-to-play clinics that helped introduce and develop fundamental flag skills for girls and offered valuable training opportunities for new coaches. Washington Legends joined in on the action alongside professional coaches to hammer home the basics for participants.

Coaches looking to best serve their student athletes in the emerging sport were given the chance to expand their knowledge via a number of coaching clinics hosted throughout the year. Meanwhile, those gearing up to officiate games were taught all about infractions, rules of the game and more at virtual coaching clinics.

Giving out gear and generating excitement

For both girls' flag spring and fall seasons, the Commanders gave out hundreds of brand-new uniforms to dozens of high schools getting their start in the sport. The uniform unveiling wasn't a simple distribution; it was a whole experience, full of fanfare. After seeing the new uniforms, the girls put them on and ran through the paces of an NFL-style "Media Day," complete with professional photo shoots and 360 cam content. The Media Days were capped off with pro athlete Q&A sessions with Washington Legends.

Building on Media Days, a strong Commanders presence, highlighted by Major Tuddy, Command Force and Washington Legends, turned up as a hype squad during the first games for schools kicking off their girls' seasons. It was important to the Commanders for these trailblazers to feel the love as these glass ceiling-breaking seasons got underway.

Honoring effort and excellence

There was a lot to celebrate about the 2025 girls' flag seasons. New passions were sparked, and comfort zones were pushed. Stars were born. The Commanders wanted to make sure that folks who put their time, heart and resources into this sport were given their proverbial flowers.

Every week of the girls' flag season, the Commanders recognized a "Coach of the Week," -- an honor that came with a $2,000 grant that went to the respective coaches' football program. All the winners were hosted at a Commanders' game at the end of the year, and Clarksburg High School Coach K.C. Landefeld was announced as 2025 Commanders' Coach of the Year in an on-field surprise. At Loudoun County's end-of-season banquet, Command Force, Major Tuddy and others helped close out the region's inaugural girls' flag season with pride and excitement for what's ahead.

Growing the game abroad

Flag has gone global. Interest in the game is on the rise all around, and in 2028, flag football will be an Olympic sport. With a historic international game in Spain on Washington's schedule this past season, the team hosted co-educational flag football clinics in Madrid.

Creating opportunities and investing in the future

The Commanders are thinking long-term about girls' flag and committed to the pursuit of legitimizing the sport in various ways. More and more, institutions across the country are offering flag as a collegiate women's sport. With that in mind, Washington hosted its first-ever girls' flag college showcase, designed for 200 student athletes in the graduating class of 2026-2030. Here, local flag players had their skills evaluated by college coaches from across the country.

In a moment to cap off the calendar year as well as home games at Northwest Stadium, the Washington Commanders' Foundation, in partnership with the NFL Foundation, presented a $650,000 check to three high schools: H.D. Woodson High School, Watkins Mill High School and West Springfield High School. The money is set to support field projects and go toward installing new, safer synthetic playing surfaces -- improvements that'll benefit both girls' and boys' student athletes as well as members of the community.