Homewood-Flossmoor seniors Izzy Thurman and Kaila “Mouse” Green walked the same halls at school for three years without ever crossing paths.

Sure, the south suburban school houses nearly 3,000 students across all four grades, but Thurman stands by her statement that she never even saw Green — who referred to herself as “in the shadows” during most of high school — until this summer.

There was one thing, however, that could pull Green out of her shell and as she put it, help her find her groove again.

It’s a sport Green played as a kid with her brother, but with limited opportunities for girls to play the sport in an organized capacity, she had left football in her rearview. That is until this year when Homewood-Flossmoor announced they were launching a team for the first time this fall.

With the team’s summer camp now concluded and tryouts coming up, Green feels a sense of peace. And at Halas Hall Saturday, when she and her team came out to the Bears’ training camp practice, Green had a permanent smile on her face.

“It’s like I can sleep at night again,” Green said. “I know that I’m gonna wake up and do something that I really love, and I know that I’m good at. I know that if I really wanted to and I apply myself the way I need to, I could really go somewhere with this.”

While Green and Thurman will only have one year of flag football at Homewood-Flossmoor, they already understand the significance of this milestone for their own futures and that of the program.

“We’re the first, like nobody else say can say that they were the first people to play flag football at HF,” Green said. “That’s gonna be me. I’m gonna be able to say that to my kids. Nobody else can say that.”

The girls will begin practicing in less than two weeks, allowing them to treat the visit to Halas Hall as a kickoff to their inaugural season. Despite waking up at 5 a.m. to make it to camp on time, the team possessed no shortage of energy.

From 7:15 a.m. when they arrived, until noon when they left, the group of 24 girls was either cheering on the Bears at practice, talking amongst themselves or screaming for their favorite players, like rookie tight end Colston Loveland — the team’s athlete ambassador — receiver DJ Moore or defensive tackle Andrew Billings.