{"id":370412,"date":"2026-06-22T18:01:39","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T18:01:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/370412\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T18:01:39","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T18:01:39","slug":"girls-flag-football-scores-touchdown-in-oakland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/370412\/","title":{"rendered":"Girls Flag Football Scores Touchdown in Oakland"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">More than 100 young athletes took the field at Bishop O\u2019Dowd High School in Oakland for the second annual Girls Flag Football Camp, hosted by Sutter Health, Pro Football Hall of Famer Steve Young and the Forever Young Foundation.<\/p>\n<p>The camp, which also featured Pro Football Hall of Famer Jerry Rice, brought together girls ages 7 to 14 for a day of skill-building, confidence, teamwork and healthy living through flag football, one of the country\u2019s fastest-growing sports.<\/p>\n<p>Building on the success of the inaugural camp held earlier this year in Palo Alto, the Oakland event highlighted the growing opportunities available to girls in football, from high school teams to college scholarships.<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-50074\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Steve-Young-Jerry-Rice-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Steve Young and Jerry Rice attend Forever Young flag football camp\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were here today for the Sutter Health Girls Flag Football Camp,\u201d Young said. \u201cTwo months ago, we had our first camp in Palo Alto, and now we are here in the East Bay. This was a chance to bring out the girls and show them football is your sport. There are now college scholarships for girls playing flag football. We\u2019re working with Sutter Health to make sure you can play in your high school.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Throughout the camp, participants rotated through drills and coaching stations led by volunteers and mentors while learning the fundamentals of the game in a supportive environment. The event also reinforced the importance of physical activity, mental wellness and leadership development.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor me, it\u2019s much bigger than just football,\u201d said Trevor Brand, CEO of Sutter\u2019s Alta Bates Summit Medical Center. \u201cFootball teaches a lot of incredible things, such as teamwork and resiliency. What\u2019s most important is this teaches our girls that they belong in spaces that maybe weren\u2019t necessarily created for them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-50079 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Girls-Tee-Shirt-e1782150190733-300x224.jpg\" alt=\"Two girls holding up flag football tee shirts\" width=\"300\" height=\"224\"\/>Brand said the camp reflects Sutter Health\u2019s commitment to supporting the overall health and well-being of young people across Northern California.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe want to ensure we can provide different activities for girls and everyone in our community to stay healthy and stay active,\u201d Brand said. \u201cWe\u2019re excited that this camp gives girls the opportunity to learn new ways of doing that through a sport that we all love.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The camp is part of a broader <a href=\"https:\/\/nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fvitals.sutterhealth.org%2Fsutter-health-and-pro-football-hall-of-famer-steve-young-partner-to-champion-youth-health-and-wellness%2F&amp;data=05%7C02%7CMonique.BinkleySmith%40sutterhealth.org%7C6879bdb3b60d421030fc08ded07c8ba0%7Caef453eadaa243e0be62818066e9ff63%7C0%7C0%7C639177430550386620%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=3e%2BHhsx9QoMR7Y1E745FAkwgwHsFm9s8UZpmlpI6Hbs%3D&amp;reserved=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">partnership<\/a> between Sutter Health and the Forever Young Foundation focused on creating opportunities that promote lifelong health, confidence and connection for youth throughout the region. Earlier this year, the San Francisco 49ers and Sutter Health announced a <a href=\"https:\/\/teams.microsoft.com\/l\/message\/19:562866bc-e673-430c-9aa9-49d461bc2ac7_759ef097-847c-4136-8580-b28a76f1c040@unq.gbl.spaces\/1782149502000?context=%7B%22contextType%22%3A%22chat%22%7D\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">new long-term partnership<\/a> to bring health resources, preventive care and wellness programming to communities across Northern California.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than 100 young athletes took the field at Bishop O\u2019Dowd High School in Oakland for the second&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":370413,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":["post-370412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370412\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}