Seattle, WA
Seattle Seahawks support continued growth of girls flag football in Alaska
WASILLA — When Seattle Seahawks Managing Director of Community Engagement Becca Stout was in high school two decades ago, competing in flag football wasn’t even an option.
So being able to lead the charge in putting on the team’s first-ever girls flag football camp in Alaska on Friday, at the Curtis D. Menard Memorial Sports Center in Wasilla, was especially meaningful for her and the organization.
More than 70 girls from across the state gathered for the camp, proving to Stout that the tide has turned for girls competing in football.
“I would’ve loved to have that, so now just every girl moving forward will have this opportunity to play football and it’s so cool,” she said. “We were told for so long that it’s just a male-dominated sport, and it’s not anymore.”
Girls flag football is being sanctioned in the state of Washington next month. Alaska had its first sanctioned state title last year. While the Seahawks have been coming up to Alaska regularly for the last decade and a half, they only started focusing on supporting the flag football community in the past couple of years.
“Supporting girls flag football is a really big initiative for the Seattle Seahawks,” Stout said. “It’s been a huge focus for us, not just in the state of Washington but helping it grow around the whole world.”
As interest has continued to grow, so has opportunity for flag football players, from youth athletes up to the highest levels.
“The girls here are out here hustling and competing and just trying to grow the game,” Stout said. “There’s so much opportunity for girls to play the sport now. More and more colleges are offering the sport so just the opportunity for scholarships for these young athletes, and it’s going to be an Olympic sport in (Los Angeles) in 2028. Hopefully someone from Alaska is competing in the Olympics in 2028.”
[Previously: Once dismissed as ‘powderpuff’ sport, Alaska girls flag football gets boost with first-ever sanctioned state championship]
Among the Seahawks contingent traveling north was starting right tackle Abraham Lucas, who was making his third visit to the state for an outreach event.
“One, I like Alaska, it’s a great place, and two, it’s nice to give back,” he said.
Lucas does a camp every year in Everett, Washington, and likes to be able to travel to other places and participate in similar events, especially ones that support the growth of sports such as flag football.
“Any capacity that you can get people to play football, whether it’s flag or two-hand touch, we all started off as young kids playing football in the front yard or backyard,” he said. “It’s great to still see people having fun with it, playing it and having a good time.”
Lucas played football at Washington State University and is happy that flag football can provide girls around the world the chance to continue their athletic careers beyond high school.
His advice to student-athletes who aspire to make it to the next level is that playing collegiate sports takes “a lot of sacrifice” and becomes like a job at some point.
“If you put all your time and energy towards it, it’ll go great for you because there’s no substitute for hard work,” Lucas said.
Proof of tangible growth in Alaska
There were at least 10 high school flag football programs from across the state represented at the event by either coaches or participants.
“It’s a great experience and opportunity for the girls that they normally don’t get,” West Anchorage head coach Antonio Wyche said. “It’s an opportunity for them to get to see different levels of football.”
The first-ever sanctioned high school state championship tournament for flag football was another indicator of how much the sport has grown in Alaska.
The Eagles have historically had “great numbers” when it comes to the participation level during Wyche’s tenure at the helm of the program. He has heard from other coaches with budding and traditionally smaller programs that their numbers are on the rise since the statewide sanctioning of the sport.
“The excitement that the girls are talking more about football is great for our sport,” Wyche said.
North Pole senior Jaelynn Colby was on the state championship team last year and has been playing flag football since her freshman year. She and her sister made the 326-mile trek to take part in the camp put on by their favorite NFL team.
“Me and my sister made this commitment to come here, we are Seahawks fans ourselves so it was pretty cool to come meet these people,” Colby said. “It’s so cool to me and awesome to have them here.”
[Previously: North Pole earns first-ever Alaska state flag football title]
While she plays a lot of sports, flag football is the one she wishes to play in college the most.
“This is definitely the best camp I’ve been to for a sport that I’m playing,” Colby said.
Two of her former Patriots teammates, Tiahna Guzman and Camryn Williams, represented not only their program but Alaska as a whole in flag football at the 2025 NFL Pro Bowl games, which she feels further underlines the sport’s rapid growth in the state.
“This has been the best year ever,” Colby said. “After our state win, we realized that this is going to be the next big thing. We’re kind of preaching it more at our school, so we’re telling all the girls that if you want a chance to do something other than your other sports you play, we’ve got that opportunity, so why not start now (rather) than later?”
Guzman is one of several girls in the state in recent years who have earned scholarships to continue playing flag football at the collegiate level. She will be taking her talents to Bryant and Stratton College in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, this fall.
Just being able to compete for a state title was a dream of Colby and her teammates when they first started playing flag football four years ago. To be able to top Service for a state title and be part of history made last year’s ride even more special.
“We’re really excited about this next year,” Colby said. “We’re going to build our team up. We lost some key players but we’ve got some new ones coming in, and I’m really excited to see how this next year goes.”
SEATTLE — Seattle is one of the only host cities for the FIFA World Cup 2026 with a stadium in the heart of downtown. While that gives soccer fans a wide range of options to get to a match or join a celebration, it also requires intensive planning to meet the varying transportation needs.
Sound Transit, King County Metro, the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT), and the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) laid out how each of their agencies is preparing for the upcoming competition during presentations on Thursday before the Seattle City Council’s Transportation, Waterfront, and Seattle Center Committee.
RELATED | Seattle leaders mark 100 days until FIFA World Cup with artwork, security plans
The overarching goal is to create a safe, inclusive, and welcoming atmosphere for visitors while limiting traffic impacts to the shortest time period possible for those not participating in the FIFA events. Adding to the challenge is that the international match-ups are scheduled to take place on weekdays while people are trying to get to their jobs.
Extensive street closures will be in effect around the Stadium District on game days, beginning four hours before kick-off and extending two to three hours post-game. That will help accommodate the intense pedestrian traffic that is anticipated, as many as 750,000 visitors try to navigate downtown on foot.
King County Metro plans to add more service during the four weeks of the World Cup. On match days, an additional 60 buses will be in operation, scaling back to an extra 30 buses on non-match days. There will also be a Waterfront service available.
Sound Transit will add more trains and expects to transport up to 2,800 riders per hour. The added capacity will extend from three hours before a match begins and continue until three hours after the match. Service from the eastside will also be available when the Crosslake Connection opens on March 28th.
SEE ALSO | Iran’s participation in Seattle World Cup match up in the air following US strikes
Both systems will now allow payment to be made by tapping a debit or credit card, in addition to the standard ORCA cards that have been used to cover fares. Sound Transit will also introduce a three-day visitor pass available through an ORCA card.
WSDOT will tear down its Revive I-5 construction zone on the Ship Canal Bridge and alternate the express lanes between north- and southbound directions depending on the time of day.
To help in these transit efforts, just this week Congress allocated money $8.4 million for transit service, which is on top of $9 million already promised last year by the state.
Ted Land had almost given up on being a homeowner.
When he moved to the Pacific Northwest in 2014, he was an award-winning television journalist, having lived and reported in Indiana and Alaska before arriving in Seattle to work for a local station, King 5. At first, he rented a studio apartment in the Capitol Hill neighborhood.
[Did you recently buy a home? We want to hear from you. Email: thehunt@nytimes.com. Sign up here to have The Hunt delivered to your inbox every week.]
“It’s very walkable, with lots of transit, very L.G.B.T. friendly, great restaurants, nightlife, parks,” said Mr. Land, 40. “It has everything I like in a neighborhood.”
His journalism career had been fraught with unexpected transitions, so it didn’t seem sensible to buy a home. “I thought I was going to move up and be a reporter in New York City or L.A. or D.C.,” he said. “I had my sights set on that. It really wasn’t even on my mind. Buying a house seemed so out of reach for me.”
As the years passed and he bounced from rental to rental, the hustle of TV news began to wear him out. Finally, in 2022, he grabbed an opportunity to move into corporate communications. With that choice came a higher income and a more stable future in Seattle with expanded living options.
“I kept signing lease after lease, not wanting to confront the daunting process of purchasing, and increasingly frustrated with the fact that I didn’t lock in a low interest rate during Covid like so many of my peers did,” Mr. Land said.
He had up to about $620,000 to spend, but as a single-income buyer, he was vexed by the down payment. “Everyone says that you’ve got to put down 20 percent. It’s like, ‘Where am I going to get $100,000? Does anyone know? Can you please tell me that?’”
With help from his broker, Mark Chavez of Windermere Real Estate, Mr. Land arranged to structure a purchase with 10 percent down using a mortgage insurance that costs him less than $100 per month, with his payments reducing in size until they total 20 percent of the home price. “I mean, $50,000 is a lot easier to save for than $100,000,” he said.
But even with that cushion, options were limited in pricey Seattle, especially for the kind of home he wanted. “Apartments are noisy places,” Mr. Land said. “They just are. And that kind of gets old after a while. I was looking for something a little quieter where I’m not hearing neighbors all the time.”
Most of Mr. Chavez’s clients want single-family homes, the broker said, but “it’s a bigger expense and there’s more to take care of, like the landscape. It used to be that to get into a condo, the entry point was more affordable. However, with many homeowner associations underfunded for future expenses, it is becoming more challenging to buy into a condominium.”
The middle ground? Townhouses. But every square foot needed to count, and location was critical. Mr. Land loved Capitol Hill, but felt he couldn’t afford to buy there. “I just really like being in the central part of the city,” he said. “The more I looked, the more I realized that walkability is a really important attribute for me.”
Find out what happened next by answering these two questions:
One of the Seattle Seahawks’ biggest rivals delivered the first big shockwaves of the 2026 offseason.
Why Salk ‘blanched’ at a Seahawks Maxx Crosby trade proposal
Los Angeles Rams have agreed to a deal that would send four draft picks to the Kansas City Chiefs in exchange for All-Pro cornerback and former UW Huskies standout Trent McDuffie, according to a report from ESPN’s Adam Schefter on Wednesday morning.
McDuffie, who is entering the final season of his rookie contract, is expected to sign a long-term extension with the Rams, according to Schefter.
Shortly after the news broke, former NFL quarterback Brock Huard gave his reaction on Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk.
“This feels like a direct move to match up with JSN and the Seahawks,” Huard said.
Widely considered to be the two best teams in the NFL this past season, the Seahawks and Rams squared off in three epic battles, capped by Seattle’s 31-27 win over Los Angeles in the NFC Championship.
Over those three games, the Rams’ shaky secondary struggled to contain NFL receiving leader and AP Offensive Player of the Year Jaxon Smith-Njigba. The Seahawks star wideout totaled 27 catches for 354 yards and two touchdowns across those three matchups, including 10 catches for 153 yards and a TD in the NFC title game.
Smith-Njigba also had a career-high 180 receiving yards and two touchdowns in an overtime loss to the Rams in 2024.
“It’s kind of like an old NBA world,” Huard said. “Like, alright, we know we’re gonna have to deal with Jordan or we’re gonna have to deal with Pippen or we’re gonna have to deal with Bird. Like, how do we match up? And (the Rams) know that that was the one area – in their back seven – that could not match up.”
Listen to the full Brock and Salk conversation at this link or in the audio player in the middle of this story. Tune into Brock and Salk weekdays from 6-10 a.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app.
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