A little over a year ago, Maine South High School girls flag football coach Carlos Panizo sat in his hotel between meetings at a school safety conference and watched the inaugural NFL Flag Championships premiere on national television.
While watching the Championships, Panizo wasn't even thinking of his team competing in Canton, Ohio, one day. At the time, Panizo was focused on preparing for Maine's South first IHSA-sanctioned girls flag football season their Maine South's second season overall after originally operating as a club sport in 2023.
Fast forward to last weekend, when Panizo and seven members of the Maine South squad took a flight two states east and represented the Bears at the second annual NFL Flag Championships —an event that featured nearly 300 girls and boys teams and 3,000 players across multiple age divisions, including eight international teams.
"I remember watching the amazing athletes there, the amazing clubs and schools that were participating in that event [last year]," Panizo said. "Just seeing what incredible coverage it was getting by ESPN and all that, I thought, 'that's so cool. I would love someday for my kids to have an opportunity like that.'
"It's really hard to wrap my brain around that in two years, we went from asking girls in the cafeteria if they wanted to try out for this new club to participating at the NFL Flag Championships. And obviously without the Bears not only setting up the flag league here in the Chicagoland area, but also cultivating it with all these extra events, it would in no way have been possible."
Maine South qualified for the Championships last October when they won the Bears' regional tournament, which capped off the team's 24-3 record in the 2024 season.
Bears director of football development Gustavo Silva made the trip to Canton to represent the club and bring its support to Maine South.
"I was extremely grateful and proud to watch the Maine South girls compete in Canton against some of the best teams in the nation," Silva said. "Many of the teams that they competed against were all-star travel teams, and our girls represented themselves extremely well both in competition and sportsmanship.
"When we started this journey of high school girls flag football in Illinois in 2021, we committed to walk alongside the girls every step of the way, and this is just confirmation of that commitment."
Maine South played in five games over the weekend and went toe to toe with some of the tournament's top teams, including Lady Ghost, a club team out of Arizona, and Rosemount High School out of Minnesota — the Vikings' regional winner.
"It was really, really nice to see athletes representing all these different NFL teams and coming together in one place and sharing their talents, being able to compete side-by-side," junior receiver/safety Emerson De La Cruz said. "I know the team really enjoyed it. The tough level of competition that these athletes showed was something we definitely needed to see."
While Maine South was eliminated in Day 2 of the tournament after falling to Texas Fury — a club team representing the Texans that went on to win the Championships — the day as a whole was a highlight for star quarterback Aribella Spandiary.
"The first game that day we won, we were really feeling it," Spandiary said. "The vibes were there. It was just a great day, and then the second game, we played a really tough team, and we didn't end up coming on top, but we still kept it up. It was a different type of feeling that we don't normally have. We sometimes get down on ourselves when we're losing, but there was so many supportive girls around us that we had made friends with, so they lightened the mood.
"I wasn't even really sad after we lost that game, because we were all still proud of each other — proud of how we did and how we played."
De La Cruz and Spandiary are not only leaders on the team, they're longtime football players. Growing up, both student-athletes played with youth boys teams in the suburban Park Ridge league because there were no real opportunities for girls to play football.
The second-year players jumped at the opportunity to join the team when it became a sanctioned sport in February 2024. To think that eventually led to an NFL Flag Championships invite felt surreal for both girls.
"I'm definitely grateful for all the opportunities we've had, but going on the national stage, it's a different type of feeling," Spandiary said, "because you're surrounded with the best, which makes you one of the best."
What hasn't gone unnoticed by both Panizo and his players is the Bears' support, which Panizo said made his team "feel like rock stars."
Along with the Bears hosting the regional tournament that earned Maine South a bid to the Championships, the club threw the high schoolers a send-off party at Buffalo Wild Wings — a favorite restaurant among the girls — the day before they took off for Canton.
Each of the girls received special backpacks for the trip along with a tracksuit, shirts and a bucket hat, which De La Cruz called "a massive hit" among the team.
"We were so thankful for the Bears," De La Cruz said. "They provided so much to help us be comfortable there and have all the clothes that we needed. Gus even came out and watched us. I thought that was super amazing of him.
"It's really nice to see that the Bears — an NFL team — are really putting their effort into girls flag. Seeing that it's such an up-and-coming sport and that even big teams like the Bears are willing to support it and see it through is incredible."
