The Strike League, a girls’ flag football league for metro grade school students, wrapped up its season this weekend. Two members of the championship team, Zariyah Alsup and Lylah Pacheco, joined News 9 to talk about their big win, the excitement of playing flag football, and what’s next for the growing sport.
What is Strike League?
Lylah: “It’s just a league for girls to play football, and it’s pretty competitive.”
Can you describe the championship game?
Zariyah: “It was just, like, high energy. Everybody was just having fun, you know, we made up chants and everything. We got touchdowns, and we just had a really good game.”
What teams do you play against?
Lylah: “It’s very competitive. They also play in the fall league, so it goes all through the year. So there are different teams that shuffle in and out.”
Why did you want to play flag football?
Zariyah: “Just never played flag football before, and like I just wanted to try it out. Because like, flag football for boys is just like big and everything. It’s a big deal. I just wanted to see how it was for the girls, and so Ben made a strike for the girls’ flag football, and I’m just happy that I was able to play.”
How long have you been playing?
Lylah: “[Zariyah] played in the spring, but we played together last summer as well. And then we played this summer.”
Would you like to keep playing in the future?
Lylah: “Yeah, if it continues to grow, probably, which it is. So and I think that Ben is planning on keeping it going and getting us into a different league.”
Applications for the fall 2025 season of Strike Team football are now open and may be found on Strike League’s official website.