UCLA Had No Flag Football Team, Then Freshman Tenley Hill Changed Everything

Last summer, Tenley Hill stepped onto UCLA’s campus as a freshman on the cheer team. She had just graduated from San Clemente High School, where she also competed on the girls flag football team for its inaugural 2024-25 season.

Hill, who helped lead San Clemente to the CIF Southern Section Division 3 Championship as a senior, received a few offers out of high school to continue playing flag football at the collegiate level. However, most of these offers came from smaller schools that lacked the academic and networking opportunities UCLA offered.

And so, Hill decided to attend UCLA, prioritizing her academics and long-term future. But Hill was not going to give up on her flag football dreams so easily.

UCLA offers more than 20 club sports to students but when Hill arrived to Westwood, flag football was not an option. Hill immediately got to work, recruiting board members, finding a qualified coaching staff, running tryouts and fundraising for the brand new sport.

“I immediately went to the club officer people and said we need to have this as a sport here, and I just started growing it,” Hill said in an interview with Los Angeles Sports Report.

Hill is now the president and founder of UCLA’s flag football team.

Tenley Hill (center) poses with three UCLA flag football teammates. Photo Courtesy of Tenley Hill

Despite only being able to practice twice a week due to limited facility space for club sports at UCLA, the Bruins finished their first club season with a nine-game winning streak. The Bruins also opened their inaugural season with a 7-0 victory over crosstown rivals, USC.

UCLA’s coaches are Jason Guyser from Newport Harbor High School and Michaeltore Smith from Camarillo High School. Smith is also an assistant coach for Ventura College’s flag football team.

Guyser and Smith are volunteer coaches for UCLA’s flag football team, which Hill believes proves the belief they have in the sport’s growth.

“They have to drive pretty far to show up to practice, and that just goes to show how big this sport is getting and how much they know that it’s going to be the next big thing,” Hill said. “They’re volunteer, we don’t pay them. We don’t have the funds to pay any of our coaches, and they still show up every single week, every single game to come and coach this rag-tag team that have of us have never played flag football before.

“Because they know that it’s not something that’s coming, it’s something that’s already here.”

NIRSA Club Flag Football League Will Begin in 2027

Flag football is a rapidly growing sport and will make its debut as an Olympic sports during the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

Historically, there have been limited opportunities for flag football players to develop at the high school and collegiate level. In 2025, there were approximately 40 NCAA schools with women’s flag football teams, according to ESPN.

In partnership with the NFL, NIRSA is creating a 7v7 women’s collegiate flag football league that will feature several Power 4 schools. UCLA and USC’s club teams will be part of the league’s inaugural season in January 2027.

NIRSA will also host a national championship in April 2027.

The launching of NIRSA creates an opportunity for women to compete in flag football while also attending a Power 4 school like UCLA or USC. The league also build a pipeline for high school players that want to develop and compete in the Olympics.

“[Football] has just been not available to women for so long, and I grew up loving football and always wanting to play. I’m so happy that this came around when I’m still young enough to play and be involved in it as much as I am,” Hill said. “I just want to be able to grow that opportunity for girls like me that want to be able to play the sport but also want to be able to have the opportunities, network and academics that UCLA has to offer.”

In January, flag football was added to the NCAA’s Emerging Sports for Women program. Nebraska also became the first power-conference school to make flag football a varsity women’s sport in January.

Hill is hopeful that UCLA will follow in Nebraska’s footsteps by making flag football a varsity sport in Westwood before she graduates.

The post UCLA Had No Flag Football Team, Then Freshman Tenley Hill Changed Everything appeared first on LA Sports Report.

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