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.
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