The future is flag: 2024 NFL Latino Youth Honors female finalists showcase opportunities in growing sport

From the Ivy League-bound girl who was practically born with a football in her hand to the one who wondered if open heart surgery would keep her out of sports entirely, the four female finalists for the 2024 NFL Latino Youth Honors have experienced firsthand how the young sport of flag football can make an impact on their lives.

In its second year, the Latino Youth Honors recognizes outstanding Latino/Hispanic high school tackle and flag football athletes from around the country for their academic and athletic excellence. This year, 59 nominees from the 32 NFL teams (up to two per team – one male, one female) were narrowed down to eight finalists, four of which are female flag football players.

Presenting sponsor Procter & Gamble is giving the male and female national winners grants of $25,000, while the remaining six finalists will each receive $5,000 – and all finalists get to attend this year’s Super Bowl in New Orleans.

At a time when high school and college flag football programs are still in their infancy, an opportunity like this is rare, even for the most outstanding players.

The four female finalists for this year’s Latino Youth Honors are great examples of the up-and-coming talent in the sport. They are: Paola Cruz-Ramos (Crescent City, FL, nominated by the Jacksonville Jaguars), Cecilia “CeCe” Beauchamp (Bronx, NY, nominated by the New York Jets), Paula “Nicole” Cruz (Calexico, CA, nominated by the Los Angeles Chargers), and Sophie Guitron (Redondo Beach, CA, nominated by the Los Angeles Rams).

As is the case with many flag football players, most of the finalists and nominees, including Beauchamp and Cruz-Ramos, started playing the sport when they were in high school – one of the best avenues to play at the moment.

Cruz-Ramos’ middle school PE coach told her she should join the team when she got to high school, and she ended up really liking catching the ball and pulling flags. Now, she plays receiver and corner, à la Heisman Trophy winner and projected top NFL Draft pick Travis Hunter, and was named Putnam County’s Flag Football Player of the Year after scoring 11 touchdowns and making 23 interceptions. That’s all while keeping a 4.0 GPA and accumulating 82 hours of community service.

“I want people to just try out for stuff and see what they like, because I had never played football before until my freshman year, and I would have never thought this would have come out of it,” Cruz-Ramos said. “So I feel like it’s nice to try new things, because you don’t know what’s gonna come out of it.”

Beauchamp, a flag-football-loving rugby player, has had a ball in her hands ever since she was a baby.

“To throw a football, just like the action of throwing and catching a football, was the first athletic and physical thing my dad ever taught me,” Beauchamp shared. “He very much does not care that I’m a girl.”

It was a bonding experience with her dad in the early days, and when she got to high school, she knew she’d play tennis and basketball (and jazz band). What she didn’t know was what spring sport she’d play.

“One day after basketball practice, the flag football coach came up to me, and he was like, “You – come throw with me.”

They threw the ball around, chatted, and he told her he couldn’t wait to see her at tryouts – never asked if she was coming, just said, “I can’t wait to see you then!”

“I felt something different about the sport and about the vibe and energy,” Beauchamp said about discovering flag. “I just felt like it was more of a sport where everyone came together, not as football players, but as athletes and as engaged people on and off the field, which I thought was really, really interesting.”

She ended up earning the starting quarterback position her freshman year and has been the starter and captain all four years.

“Flag football has changed my life, like truly, and it’s not just one aspect of it. It’s my team – it showed me what team’s supposed to be and what support is supposed to look like and what competitiveness but standing together and winning together is supposed to look like.”

And, in an interesting turn of events, it’s also how Beauchamp found rugby.

“[My freshman year gym teacher] knew how good I was at flag football and how I was a leader and how I wanted to play sports on the collegiate level, but flag football, there are very limited opportunities for that,” Beauchamp admitted. “So sophomore year, at the beginning of the year, he kind of takes me aside – and he played rugby DI in college and he played semi-professional and still plays here and there – and he was like, ‘I think you would love rugby, and I want to refer you to the best club in the city.’ And so that was a lot for me, because I didn’t even know what rugby was actually. I didn’t know the rules of the sport, because it’s not a very American sport. The idea of it sounded great. Like, I [wanted] to be able to tackle people.”

She went to try out one day and ended up falling in love with it.

“Others might not believe in love at first sight, but [it was] love at first sight for me and rugby – that was us,” Beauchamp said.

After being accepted to Yale, the aspiring medical and mental health researcher says there is an “85%” chance she’s going to be a Bulldog, where she’ll play as a member of their club rugby team, which competes on the DIII circuit.

She might not be playing flag football in college, but it’s an opportunity she has because of flag.

Then there are the few, like Cruz and Guitron, who started playing before high school. Both are part of the U.S. National U17 Girls Flag Football Team, both will be playing in college, and both are eyeing spots on the senior national team in the spring.

Cruz has played since a young age and eventually moved from Mexicali, Mexico, to Calexico, California, to follow her dream. Now, she has more than 2,200 yards and 26 touchdowns to her name.

Both Cruz and Guitron, another California resident, will be playing college flag on scholarship, with Guitron heading across the country to West Palm Beach’s Keiser University.

After undergoing open heart surgery the summer before she started middle school, Guitron thought that sports were off the table for her. That was until she started playing football with some of the boys during lunch in seventh grade, who told her she should join the rec flag league they played for. Guitron was on a “coed” team a division below them, but she was the only girl on her team and one of only three in her division. Nonetheless, by the end of the season, she had earned “Super Bowl MVP.”

Now, Guitron plays club for the Conqueror Chargers in Orange County, about an hour and 20 minute drive for her a couple days a week. She has also played on her high school team the past two seasons since they started the program her junior year.

Guitron and Cruz became friends through flag, an example Guitron notes of the sense of community within the sport.

She also says there are a lot of opportunities in flag football right now – none of which are more intriguing than the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Olympic Games, which will include men’s and women’s flag football.

“When it was announced, one of my teammates texted in our group chat, so that’s the first time I heard, and then I did my quick research on it, right?” Beauchamp said. “And we all started freaking out because we’ve had watch parties of the U17 and the U18 national flag football games. So we’re all very into it, and we all think it’s really cool.

“Also, when they’re playing at the highest level, it actually looks a lot different than our games do. It’s kind of the way that they play… it’s different, and the strategies are different, which we find really cool.”

Members of that U17 team, Cruz and Guitron are looking forward to the chance to compete in LA.

“It was really surprising, because I didn’t think that they would add it so quickly,” Guitron said. “In California, we just kind of got it as a high school sport, so to see it was already added to the Olympics that fast is crazy. Because, honestly, the opportunities just keep growing and growing, and now there’s just a bigger goal for us to shoot for. Now we can kind of work towards the 2028 Olympics… even if I’m not even on the team, just to be able to watch it on the TV and just watch all these countries compete.”

Whether any of the four finalists end up playing in LA is still a story years in the making, but for now, they’re being catapulted onto the national stage and showing others that flag football is a legitimate sport with real opportunities – you just have to find a way to play.

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