Flagged for Greatness: Training Camp Diaries with Carver Military Academy

As told to Gabby Hajduk

Throughout Chicago Bears Training Camp by LRS, the organization is hosting five high school girls flag football teams for exclusive visits to Halas Hall, which include access to practice and opportunities to meet players, coaches and front office executives.

Following each visit, ChicagoBears.com will highlight a special experience from the school's day in the "Flagged For Greatness" series.

"If it wasn't for us three, I don't know if Carver would've had flag football."

Carver Military Academy junior Azayah Tillman wasn't acting boastful when she made that declaration about herself and her two best friends, Sanah Flakes and Zariyah Thompson.

Tillman was speaking the truth. And it's their resilience that led the girls and a dozen of their new flag football teammates to Halas Hall for a Bears training camp practice Thursday, when they watched practice, met with players like their athlete ambassador Grady Jarrett, quarterback Caleb Williams and rookie tight end Colston Loveland, and received a pair of Nike cleats donated by Bears President & CEO Kevin Warren and his wife, Greta.

The trio of student-athletes met at the beginning of their freshman year. Their friendship began by sitting near one another in multiple classes. It grew during lunch hour where they started to talk.

Sports were the catalyst in solidifying and deepening their connection, so much so the girls now finish each other's thoughts.

"Our very first sport together was basketball freshman year and that's when our real connection really started because you have to build a bond with your peers and your teammates," Tillman shared. "You can't be on the court not talking. It's all about communication and teamwork. So that's what really happened between us."

"Then it became stronger for track because it was the next season after that," Thompson added.

"And now we all have chemistry," Flakes concluded.

After participating in track and field together freshman year — where Tillman, Flakes and Thompson were three quarters of the team's 4x100 relay — the girls wanted more. More time together, more chances to compete and more opportunities for the girls who would pass through Carver after them.

They noticed other high schools in the Chicagoland area adding girls flag football as a fall sport and Flakes, who was always drawn to football growing up, went to Tillman and Thompson and said, "I want to play flag football."

Thompson said, "I want to, too," and Tillman agreed.

With the friends all on the same page and support from various teachers at Carver, the girls began going to meetings with administrators, creating posters to attract attention and gather signatures from their peers. However, the initial push was denied, meaning no flag football for the girls' sophomore year.

"We were like, 'cool, we're not gonna stop just because we get denied the first time,'" Tillman said. "So we kept going on, and later in our sophomore year during track, we started pushing again. That's when we started getting more recognition. We felt like, even though we're juniors, it'll be cool to do it for two years."

"We want the freshmen now, the sophomores now, to still be able to play the sport when we graduate," Flakes added.

Their resilience paid off and in a couple weeks, Carver will begin official practices for their inaugural girls flag football season, with Tillman playing quarterback and her best friends at receiver (Thompson) and running back (Flakes).

Standing on the practice fields at Halas Hall allowed the girls to really appreciate the fruits of their labor.

"I feel like it was our mindset," Thompson said. "The first time, if it were anybody else, they could've been thinking, 'oh we got denied, so if we tried again it won't work.' Instead, we thought, if we tried again, we can actually get it and keep going and pushing for it. And since we tried again, it got us here with the Bears."

As Tillman, Flakes and Thompson looked on at the Bears pushing through Day 8 of training camp, the reality of their own season starting shortly settled in.

Thompson, admittedly, is a little nervous, but she knows that as long as she has her girls, she will "look at them on the field and be good."

Flakes believes their team has a ton of potential, stating, "I think that we can get anywhere now."

Tillman, the trio's unofficial spokesperson, is ready to go. She feels inspired, motivated and confident after spending Thursday with the Bears. She's eager to "go dominate and play with my best friends because we've got it, forreal."

"I see how these players are living, how they're making a name for themselves. It's giving me motivation, like, 'okay I can do the same things if I put my mind to it,'" Tillman said. "Just because it's girls flag football and it's two different sports, doesn't mean I can't do the same things they're doing."

"This was a big opportunity. Now people see us, they see a group of girls and think, 'okay what team do they play for?' They're gonna really want to watch us now. I just want to say thank you to the Bears."