As the final whistle blew during the Delaware High School Girls Flag Football Championship at Salesianum School, the Delaware Military Academy players ran on the field in jubilation.

DMA had just completed a perfect season, defeating defending champion Saint Mark's, 13-6, to capture the huge silver cup awarded to the winner.

"It means the world," DMA Head Coach Anthony Smith said. "The girls worked hard this year. They had a good year last year but came up short. And they wanted to come back this year. They worked hard. They trained in the summer, had some programs.

"I told them to come out, play free. They've been playing free all season, and that's what they showed today. So I'm really proud of those girls, and it means a lot to me to see those girls go out and do [it] that way."

The Eagles and the Baltimore Ravens have helped support Delaware Girls Flag Football, and the two organizations were present on Wednesday night.

Both SWOOP and Poe, the Ravens mascot, attended the game and interacted with fans, and Eagles Hall of Fame defensive end Hugh Douglas was part of the pregame coin toss and watched from the sidelines.

Also watching from the sideline was Karen Duppel, who is an assistant girls flag football coach at Padua Academy, but also has played a pivotal role in bringing the sport to Delaware. Duppel watched the spring championship in Philadelphia a couple years back, and she and her husband immediately knew they needed to implement the sport at their school.

It started with four schools last year and grew to 11 this season. Now, the teams are aiming to move up a level in the DIAA and reach 16 teams in order to be a sanctioned state championship sport.

"We're excited about how fast it's growing," Duppel said. "The support of the Eagles and the Ravens has made it possible for us to do all this with the equipment, the uniforms, and even tonight helping us in many ways.

"... It's just exciting to be a part of it and the opportunities — we've had college coaches come out and watch our girls. So the opportunities at the next level, now these girls can start to dream about playing football in college where they didn't even realize that they had the opportunity to play football."

There was a healthy crowd for the championship game on Wednesday night, a testament to how much the sport has grown over the last year. And as DMA took the lead and held on over the final minutes, there was a buzz in the crowd and on the sidelines.

"The sport is amazing. The sport, it's growing," Smith said. "The girls are really involved, and they really have a knack for learning. It's the sport that they always wanted to learn. There are sports like soccer, softball, and [flag football] kind of helps translate into other sports. And to see it grow through high school, college, maybe the Olympics, it's amazing.

"Not only men can do gridiron, but the females can too. And they love to come out on Wednesday nights, like how Saturday nights are for the boys, Wednesday nights are for the girls. And that's the time to shine."

For Duppel, it was extra special to be there just five minutes away from her school watching what the sport has turned into in Delaware. There's still more room to grow, and she has her sights set on the future, but Wednesday night at Salesianum was a special moment.

"It's almost surreal to be able to see all the teams and all the excitement and to know that I had a hand in it and that our girls have been able to be a part of it as well, and the excitement over the sport," Duppel said. "It's just been fabulous ... I teach at an all-girls school for over 20 years now and I'm always looking for opportunities and ways to elevate our girls and football seemed like a great way to do it.

"... The idea that we have an opportunity to make little girls' dreams come true, really, in a real way, has been exciting and it's empowering for them, for the sport and for all that it gives women in sports. We know it sets them up for success later in life when they're a part of a team." — Written by Matt Ryan