A league of their own

Girls in Port Washington and Grafton who grew up loving football now have a chance to play the sport in high school.

A co-op girls’ flag football team is in its third season and filled with athletes, some of whom have been waiting for this for years since nothing was offered beyond a youth program.

“I started in kindergarten with my cousin Ellie Lanser. We played all the way through,” Port senior quarterback Claire Lanser said. “We were the only two girls in the program. Then this came around so we’ve been playing this for the past three years.”

It has been everything she hoped it would be.

“Most fun I’ve ever had in a sport,” Lanser said. “I just like the intensity. It’s a different style of game where you get to truly show off skills that you don’t get to show off in other sports.”

Her cousin Ellie Lanser, a Port senior, had also been itching to join.

“I had played football in the past, first through fourth grade. I’d always kind of wanted to start a flag football league but never got one together,” she said. “It’s always been my favorite sport.”

A first-through-fourth-grade program exists, but nothing beyond that. Dale Carlson of Port Washington changed that.

“I thought that we should have a program. I coached the little kids. Why don’t we have a girls’ middle school team, a girls’ high school team?” he asked.

Carlson coached his boys, Port High alumna, in youth flag football and is now coaching his middle-school daughter.

Carlson said Port Washington’s Parks and Recreation Department wasn’t interested in running a girls’ flag football program, and the Port Gridiron Club offered some money but not manpower.

He asked Port High football coach and athletic director John Bunyan, who said he knew some girls were interested.

“I knew it wasn’t going to be enough, so I reached out to Grafton,” Carlson said.

The program started small in 2024, playing indoor games after football season.

Some players attended the NFL Draft in Green Bay in spring 2025 and had their picture taken with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.

The Green Bay Packers provided a grant to help get the team started, and the Packers have a list of athletic directors and others who are trying to start programs.

Carlson tapped into that list to invite other teams to play. He is the first to start a league in the Milwaukee area.

Last summer was the first season during the warm months. Carlson hopes to keep that schedule and keep girls interested. He knows what he has already.

“Yeah, we’ve got a good team,” he said.

Enough girls came out to have varsity and junior varsity squads, and Carlson said the freshman team might be the best in the state. He capped the team at 30 players and had a waiting list.

Senior running back Erin Brezovar, who Carlson said has Barry Sanders-like moves, already has been offered a scholarship to play flag football for the University of Wisconsin-Parkside.

Carlson said he expects other players will receive scholarships as well.

On Monday, the Port/Grafton Seahawks shut out Cedarburg in a blowout — the Bulldogs just started a team this season — then shut out Franklin on the turf at Al Urness Field in two straight one-hour games. Port/Grafton is 6-4 heading into the season-ending tournament in Port on Monday, July 27.

Grafton freshman Nora Roddy said she saw that the team was looking for players and thought it would be fun to join. She convinced her friend Kalli Gries. Both scored on Monday on big plays, Roddy on a pick-six against Franklin.

Both love the team camaraderie as the rival schools quickly melded.

“It was really easy. They were all really nice, especially Claire. Claire put us all together,” Gries said.

Ellie Lanser said it went better than she expected.

“I think it was actually OK. At first I thought it would be a little more of a rivalry, but I feel like we did good being a team,” she said.

Carlson was also initially concerned but saw the schools become one.

“I tell you what, if we would have gone to Culver’s after this, you would have seen Claire and Ellie Lanser sitting with two ninth-grade Grafton girls just eatin’ dinner and getting along,” he said.

Claire Lanser said, “I definitely think that the rivalry meant nothing in the end. We all turn into teammates. It’s actually easier now. We’re two home teams blended into one.”

Coaching females in football, however, is different. Carlson can tell since he also coaches the first-through-fourth-grade boys.

“With the boys, I know what I’m doing. I know the offensive system. I know what I’m going to do from the first practice all the way down,” he said.

“These last two years have been nothing but experimenting and trying to get a system. It’s tricky with girls. When you say run a go route, a boy knows what you’re talking about. A girl does not.”

But the girls are picking it up to the point where they call their own plays, even at the youth level after a few games.

“Even when I try to call a play in the first half, (Claire) said, ‘Do we have to?’ She vetoed me. I’m like, whatever, it’s your team,” Carlson laughed. “I’m not a control freak.”

Flag football rules are a little different than for tackle ball. The field is 80 yards long by 40 yards wide. Permanent first down markers are set at both 30 yard-lines and at midfield. So if a team takes over at its own 29-yard line, it would face first and one.

The defense has to start seven yards behind the line of scrimmage before rushing the passer, and only two defenders may rush per play.

There’s no blocking, but next season screen blocking, similar to setting a pick in basketball, will be allowed, Carlson said. Defenders will then be able to start closer to the line.

Punting will also be added. Now, a punt gives the opponent the ball on their own 20-yard line.

Play stops on fumbles and dropped snaps.

Extra points are one point from the five-yard line and two from the 10. There’s no kicking.

Carlson likes where the program is now and he loves looking down the road.

“I’ve got eighth-grade girls that are awesome,” he said.

For more information, visit the team’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61562944627373.