A dozen or so teenage girls from Round Rock High School's flag football team gathered on a turf field Monday.
Their head coach, Ashley Castro, led them through a series of passing and catching drills.
"Go and find the ball," she instructed. "Ready — go!"
The team was practicing ahead of Texas' first Girls Flag Football State Championship this weekend.
"I really wouldn't want to be anywhere else," said Athena Nolan, a wide receiver and safety with the team. "I'm really, really excited that we get to have this opportunity."
The state tournament will bring together the top teams from both the Dallas Cowboys and Houston Texans girls' flag football leagues.
Round Rock plays in the Texans' league. That meant to qualify for state, the team had to first win the league's Austin-area regional tournament.
It wasn't easy, Nolan said.
Winning regionals meant having to defeat the league's reigning Austin-area champs, Leander's Rouse High School.
The game ended up going into double overtime. Nolan caught the touchdown pass that allowed the team to advance to the tournament's semi-finals.
"It was really, really awesome. Just having all my teammates come in, and we were all celebrating," Nolan said. "It was such a surreal moment. It was so much fun."
Round Rock went on to defeat Cedar Park, 28-12, in the championship game, securing a spot at state.
Castro said her team is one of eight from across Texas to qualify for the state tournament.
"Just to see their faces light up when you say you're going to state, and you get to represent Round Rock out of 256 teams in the state ... I'm just excited for them to really get this opportunity," she said.
Castro said she hopes this weekend's tournament helps pave the way for girls' flag football to become an official high school varsity sport in Texas.
Right now, only 23 states recognize girls' flag football at that level, according to the NFL. In Texas, that would mean recognition from the University Interscholastic League, which currently sponsors 14 sports at the high school level.
"We love football here," Castro said. "Why not give that opportunity to female athletes, and in high school, to represent their school with pride, and to have the opportunity to go on and play in college, and one day in the Olympics."
Castro's not alone in that hope.
Dozens of people, including representatives from the Texans and Cowboys, converged on Austin this Wednesday to attend the UIL's June legislative council meeting. There, they urged the organization's leaders to recognize girls' flag football.
The UIL agreed to do a survey of superintendents and develop a plan to possibly sanction the sport. The group is set to take up the topic again at its October legislative council meeting.
In the meantime, though, Castro said she just wants her team to embrace this moment.
"Being at the first ever girls' state flag championship is a goal that we've had set for a while, and so just to see them be a part of that — live in the moment," she said. "But also just gain confidence. I think, as female athletes growing up, especially in a sport that we were always told was a boys' sport, to know that they can do it, that they can go out there and play, and that they can be as good as they set their minds to be."
This weekend's state championship is set to take place at the University of North Texas. Austin's Anderson High School will also be competing. The event is free and open to the public.
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