On June 23rd, the Philadelphia Eagles Youth Football Academy hosted a special girls football clinic inside the Eagles Indoor Practice Field at the Novacare Complex. Our girls football clinic was designed for athletes between the ages of 5 to 18 years old. With a tremendous group of college football coaches, high school football coaches and former NFL players teaching and training the athletes in attendance had a first class football training experience.
In Pennsylvania, flag football is on track to become a varsity sport as soon as 2026, whereas in New Jersey, flag football will be a varsity sport for the 2025 season. With that said, it was important to the Eagles Youth Football Academy to allow an older age range for this clinic, which in turn brought out many different high school groups and teams to attend.
With over 125 athletes registered for the clinic, athletes were broken out into 10 groups based on age. The clinic featured Eagles Wide-Receiver Jason Avant who started the clinic off by welcoming the athletes and parents. After Jason delivered a tremendous talk, he conducted a Q&A for the athletes. Jason moved from his speaking role, to working at each station with the athletes, even competing against some of them in different drills!
Before Jason left, we got the chance to ask him a few questions. He said that the reason he enjoys giving back to the community so much is because he “loves to see kids going after their dreams and their passion” and that he is “willing to share as much information as (he) can” to those who put in the effort. A message he has to girls wanting to try football is that they should not “worry about what somebody else is doing” and that they should “do everything they can to reach their maximum potential”. He feels a sense of home here in Philadelphia because he was drafted here and he was able to adapt to the culture, which he believes is a huge reason why he succeeded with the Eagles.
We also got to talk with one of the coaches at the girls clinic. Melissa Brizzell is a school counselor and the girls flag football coach at Abington High School. She led the girls to a championship winning season in 2023, which was also their first season as a team. Her passion for the game is because girls flag football is an “upcoming sport”. As a child, there were nowhere near as many opportunities for girls to play football. “It is just awesome to see their excitement” she says when talking about her championship winning team. She has girls that play basketball, soccer, and more but they all say “flag is their favorite” to play. The girls and their parents are “starting to see the potential that can come along with playing in college,” as now, girls can get a scholarship to go to college and play flag football! When she heard about the Eagles Youth Football Academy, after they sent out an email about the program, she “jumped at the opportunity to get her team involved and also join the coaching staff” so that she could show these girls “that you can get into football even as an adult”. She is committed to serve as a role model to female athletes and is passionate about getting more female athletes involved in playing flag football.
The Philadelphia Eagles Youth Football Academy runs throughout the summer and school year. If you are interested in attending, make sure you join our email list at https://eaglesacademies.com/subscribe/.
