Harford Community College is introducing women’s flag football this spring, bringing the rapidly growing sport to Harford County for the first time. The school hired Andre Smalls, a longtime football coach at the youth and high school level throughout Maryland to help launch the program.

He’s spent the past few months assembling a roster, which now consists of students with diverse backgrounds but with one thing in common: an excitement to play the sport they all grew up loving but, until now, didn’t have many avenues to play.

The Aegis recently spoke with sophomores Clara Pauni and Samantha Guzman and freshman Nehir Safkan, as well as HCC athletic director Ed Liesch, who’s been in the role since August 2021, about the program’s launch and what it means to localize one of the nation’s fastest growing sports.

What made you want to play football?

Pauni: Not only is it a good chance for me to stay in shape and stay healthy, but it also gives me the opportunity to get exposure and to learn something new that I’ve never done before.

Guzman: I agree with Clara. I just love football. I play basketball, but football is my favorite sport. I watch a lot of football, so I just can’t wait.

Safkan: I also play basketball, and I just wanted to play flag with my teammates. Most of my basketball teammates are also playing. It’s going to be fun.

How did your initial conversations with Coach Smalls go?

Pauni: He needed to recruit people, and so he started looking out to the women’s sports. He was like, ‘Hey, this is a great opportunity for you and it would just be really great to have some people who are already athletes to come on.’

Guzman: I actually reached out to him. I was just ready to play. I went to see him, and then he just brought me in.

Safkan: He reached out to me first, and I actually rejected him. Then I realized that it was going to be a great opportunity.

Liesch: And when you hear there’s scholarship money. The way I presented to a lot of the student-athletes on campus was, ‘This is historical. This is the first ever. This is your opportunity to be part of something that is setting the groundwork for the future.’ And so a number of – like Clara is one, she had some hesitations, and then after mentioning it to her mom, her mom slapped her upside the head and said you need to do this. That’s been consistent with a lot of their teammates. Clara played volleyball, Samantha and Nehir played basketball, but they all wanted that camaraderie of a team. This is just continuing with that same approach. Plus, getting a little scholarship on it and learning something new.

Pauni: I’m really excited. At first I did not want to do it and I wanted to focus on more on my academics. But as soon as I committed, and then after I got back from winter break, I was like, ‘Yeah, I really want to work on this.’ I would love to learn something new.

Liesch: She was the first one in the gym.

What’s it been like to watch the sport explode the way it has, nationally and locally and at the college, high school and youth levels?

Guzman: It’s amazing. Like, girls can play football, too. I feel like now that it’s big, it’s a great thing for us.

Liesch: I think that’s the NFL’s message, ‘It’s our turn now’ or something like that. That’s the message they were sending to women was, ‘It’s our turn now,’ in those commercials.

Pauni: It reminded me of women’s golf, how there weren’t many female athletes to play golf, and so they offered them a lot of scholarship money. It gives women a good opportunity to get exposure and to try something that they’ve never done before.

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