Since 2021, the Bears — with the support of Nike, Gatorade and Visa — have played an integral role in bringing girls flag football to high schools in Illinois and helping expand the sport to the IHSA level. This year, ChicagoBears.com took a deep dive into how the sport changes the lives of the student-athletes who play it. We followed the Whitney Young Dolphins, a Chicago Public League team that just completed its fourth season under head coach Valerie Spann and has now placed at the State Championships in back-to-back years.

Bears writer Gabby Hajduk and photographer Molly Kaiser take readers behind the scenes inside the Dolphins' regular-season success, their postseason run as well as the future of the seniors and trajectory of the program in a three-part series.