Flagged for Greatness: Training Camp Diaries with Homewood-Flossmoor High School

By 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. On Saturday, Homewood-Flossmoor High School brought the energy to Halas Hall to celebrate their inaugural girls flag football season.

Homewood-Flossmoor seniors Izzy Thurman and Kaila "Mouse" Green walked the same halls at school for three years without ever crossing paths.

Sure, the south suburban school houses nearly 3,000 students across all four grades, but Thurman stands by her statement that she never even saw Green — who referred to herself as "in the shadows" during most of high school — until this summer.

There was one thing, however, that could pull Green out of her shell and as she put it, help her find her groove again.

Flag football.

It's a sport Green played as a kid with her brother, but with limited opportunities for girls to play the sport in an organized capacity, she had left football in her rearview. That is until this year when Homewood-Flossmoor announced they were launching a team for the first time this fall.

With the team's summer camp now concluded and tryouts coming up, Green feels a sense of peace. And at Halas Hall Saturday, when she and her team came out to the Bears' training camp practice, Green had a permanent smile on her face.

"It's like I can sleep at night again," Green said. "I know that I'm gonna wake up and do something that I really love, and I know that I'm good at. I know that if I really wanted to and I apply myself the way I need to, I could really go somewhere with this."

While Green and Thurman will only have one year of flag football at Homewood-Flossmoor, they already understand the significance of this milestone for their own futures and that of the program.

"We're the first, like nobody else say can say that they were the first people to play flag football at HF," Green said. "That's gonna be me. I'm gonna be able to say that to my kids. Nobody else can say that."

The girls will begin practicing in less than two weeks, allowing them to treat the visit to Halas Hall as a kickoff to their inaugural season. Despite waking up at 5 a.m. to make it to camp on time, the team possessed no shortage of energy.

From 7:15 a.m. when they arrived, until noon when they left, the group of 24 girls was either cheering on the Bears at practice, talking amongst themselves or screaming for their favorite players, like rookie tight end Colston Loveland — the team's athlete ambassador — receiver DJ Moore or defensive tackle Andrew Billings.

Their surplus of excitement stemmed from pure gratitude and being in awe of the experience.

"I thought it was good exposure and a nice welcoming moment, because flag football's a new thing to us and to see the support from the Bears, it was cool," Thurman said. "It's very nice to be like, 'oh, we're doing this new thing, but what if nobody likes it?' and then you've got this big NFL team going, 'yeah, go do your thing, we've got you.'"

The morning not only gave the girls confidence and inspiration for the season ahead but also provided quality time for them to bond with one another, which was evident by how much closer Thurman and Green felt after just a few hours.

The pair's connection began developing earlier this summer during camp with Thurman at quarterback and Green at receiver. While Green immediately felt comfortable at practice, having experience playing football, she sensed Thurman's hesitations.

"From the first day that she came to camp, I saw her, and I was like, 'this is gonna be her first day, so I know she's gonna be nervous,'" Green recalled. "I didn't want her to feel pressure to be perfect. I knew she played softball and I saw her arm, and I was like, 'dang, she can actually be real good.' So I just wanted to make sure that she felt comfortable enough to make a mistake because we could always work on it together."

Green's support of Thurman that first day helped the pair go from complete strangers to trusted peers. But their time together at Halas Hall — capped off by a joint interview with ESPN 1000 radio hosts Dionne Miller and Peggy Kusinski — fostered a true friendship, where Thurman's outgoing nature helped Green break further out of the shadows.

"I still can't believe we never knew each other before now," Thurman joked to Green before their interview.

As Thurman and Green wrapped up their radio debut and headed toward the buses to go home, they took a second to reflect on their experience.

But for the first time Saturday, they were left nearly speechless.

"I don't even know what to say, honestly," Green said. "I'm just super grateful."

"Oh. My. God," Thurman said. "That's it."