How UCLA freshman went from cheerleader to scoring touchdowns

As much as she loved completing flips and stunts as a cheerleader, Tenley Hill felt a bit conflicted.Why would she cheer for the game when she could play the game?“There was always that little bit of when I was watching the football game,” Hill told The California Post, “thinking, like, I should be out there, I should be the one doing that.”She had played girls’ flag football as a high school senior — giving up cheerleading to do so — but knew there was no such team when she arrived at UCLA.So she started one.Grasping the opportunity as if she was snagging a pick six, Hill created a club women’s flag football team on campus, rounding up sponsors, forming a schedule and assembling a roster.Now the freshman has started a movement that she hopes will help elevate the sport to Division I status.That seems reasonable given the considerable momentum women’s flag football has enjoyed as part of a growing network of college teams, not to mention inclusion as a medal sport in the 2028 Olympics.“It’s really been amazing, how fast it’s growing,” said Michaeltore Smith, the co-head coach of UCLA’s team.

“We’ve been able to build something with these girls that’s been huge.”Next year, UCLA will join the NIRSA Club Flag Football League, a collection of more than 40 7-on-7 teams across the country working in partnership with the NFL to stage a season starting in January and ending with a national championship in early May.The team that Hill founded has already been a wild success beyond its 11-5 record that included a nine-game winning streak to end the season.She’s constantly getting DMs from high school prospects wanting to join the team.

An Instagram page for the team went from zero followers to nearly 8,000 in months.Everything about the rise of this team seems accelerated.Told that the formation of a club could take up to a year, Hill refused to accept that timetable.“I was like, ‘No,’ ” she said, “ ‘I want this done by nex...