fourth annual Bold Gold Games,<\/a> a flag football tournament hosted by the Jacksonville Jaguars.<\/p>\nThe Olympic-style competition brought together nearly 70 teams, with players ranging from 8U to 17U, in a fast-growing sport gaining national attention.<\/p>\n
With flag football set to debut in the 2028 Olympics, many of the athletes and families at the Clay County Regional Sports Complex said the opportunity to compete now could help shape their future in the game.<\/p>\n
Among those competing was Tierra Lewis, an 18-year-old senior who began playing flag football as a sophomore. Now, she\u2019s competing at a high level with nine college offers, including a Division I opportunity.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat inspired me, I just wanted to try something new, and like I used to play football with my uncle, so I thought it was something good to do,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Her father, Jason, said watching her growth over the years has been rewarding.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust seeing her growth from a sophomore on the first team high school flag football team to now, it\u2019s just that she\u2019s doing awesome,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Parents also highlighted that the sport is opening new doors\u2014especially for girls.<\/p>\n
\u201cFinally getting recognized as a girls’ sport, mostly, and girls can play just as well as boys,\u201d said Michelle Parez.<\/p>\n
Event organizers said the tournament is about more than just wins and losses, but about building a pipeline for the sport\u2019s future.<\/p>\n
\u201cOlympics coming up, more and more kids are going to play because it\u2019s the teenagers right now that I\u2019ll have to shop to make the Olympic team, so this tournament is definitely growing, and it\u2019s a good thing,\u201d said Michael Reimel, Director of Flag Football and Growth.<\/p>\n
Winning teams of the tournament earned gold medals, Jaguars gear, and a $1,000 grant to support their programs.<\/p>\n
Parents said the exposure and opportunities are already making a difference.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re seeing these girls doing their thing, we see these boys teams, so it\u2019s kind of opened it up for a lot more players and kind of the traditional football,\u201d said Matt Cucio.<\/p>\n
Organizers say events like the Bold Gold Games are helping create a pathway for the next generation, as more young athletes set their sights on competing at the highest level, including the Olympics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hundreds of young athletes from across Florida competed in the Jaguars’ Bold Gold Games tournament in Clay County,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":200675,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-200948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}