Football is more than just a sport.
As Eagles' Girls Flag Football Coach of the Week Aaron Clark put it, the sport gives girls an opportunity that goes beyond the field, which is why he started Land of Opportunity, which is a travel flag football club for both boys and girls.
The club, which travels around the country to play in different flag tournaments, originally started with just boys, but one girl, Jermyra Bethel, found some family and friends to help form the first all-girls team.
"Eleven years ago, we started our first all-girls team and from there, it just grew," Clark said.
The league is based in Camden, New Jersey, with the goal of helping players see there is a world outside of where they live.
"During that time that we first started, there's a lot of violence, a lot of bad stuff going on throughout the city. So, with Land of Opportunity, we were trying to get the girls a different outlet, to show that, 'Hey, there's more to life than just Camden and all the bad things happening,'" Clark said. "There's a lot more stuff going on in the world, the United States is the land of opportunity. You can get opportunities all over the country. And we want to start by giving opportunities here by traveling the country and playing against the top players."
While coaching at Land of Opportunity, Clark was approached by Troy Still, a Dean at Master High School of Camden whose son was on the coach's team, to start not only the first girls' flag program at the school, but the first in all of South Jersey.
After accepting the role, Clark reached out to last week's Coach of the Week, Tim Quinn, who helped get the school into the Philadelphia League. The school now plays in the South Jersey league, where it won the first-ever conference championship by defeating Cedar Creek at the Eagles' NovaCare Complex practice facility.
"It means a lot. When we first started the old flag football for girls, it was only like four or five teams. Now, we see over 100 teams all over the country traveling and playing with each other. I think there's almost a million girls playing the sport now. So, just watching it grow from when we started until now, it's been an amazing journey," Clark said.
Clark's daughters Arianna and Adrianna both play flag football as well. Arianna was named the West Jersey Football League Player of the Year in 2024 after finishing the season with 38 receptions for 851 yards and 20 touchdowns.
Watching them brings the Clark family together, as Aaron's wife, Darlene, is currently in a battle with Stage 4 cancer.
"Flag football for her has kind of been like an outlet. She gets to go out and enjoy watching her daughters play. She coaches with me at Mastery, so she would be having her chemotherapy days and was still trying to go to practice – she doesn't miss a beat," Clark said. "She pushes me a lot to really focus to push this for South Jersey, and I feel like we did a great job together getting the support to grow in our area. Hopefully we can continue getting more and more girls involved."
All of the traveling and time that goes into their teams is actually what brings the Clark family closer together.
"I think it motivates them (his daughters) more especially having their mom and all of us cheering them on. I think they really love that. Everything we do with flag football is more of a family thing, so we're always together," Clark said.
As the sport of flag football continues to grow among high schools, colleges, and all the way up to the 2028 Olympics, the work is still not done.
Clark wants to get as many girls as possible playing the sport, as he has learned it can take them far beyond the playing field.
"I think a message I would really like to give out is I would like more girls, especially in the South Jersey area, to give it a try. I know a lot of girls like softball, lacrosse, soccer, they want to focus on their sport and they're not taking flag football seriously yet. But I would like for more girls to really get involved and just give flag football a chance. You never know, they might like it," Clark said.
"Flag football is a growing sport. They're offering more, as far as the high school level, they're offering college scholarships now, it's going to be an Olympic sport. Eventually, hopefully it would turn into a league like the NFL. So, girls have more outlets. They can go to college on scholarship for flag football instead of playing another sport." – Written by Liam Wichser
