The flyer arrived home from school courtesy of her brother: Local league looking for flag football players.
Intrigued, Akemi Higa asked if she could play. She was just 5 at the time and could already throw the ball some 20 yards.
Many yards passing and TD tosses later, the 17-year-old quarterback from Hawaii/Las Vegas is part of a youthful wave within the U.S. women’s national team pipeline this season. Not a total surprise, given the rise of flag football and how the sport will make its Olympic debut at the 2028 LA Games.
This week, at a training camp in California, Higa will try to secure a roster spot to represent Team USA at the IFAF flag football world championships in Duesseldorf, Germany, later in the summer.
“More people are getting into it and more people are getting better at it,” said Higa, the strong-armed QB who’s heading to Nevada State University to play flag football. “You start young and grow with the game — constantly learning new ways of playing the game.”