A new kind of Ducks football takes the field

There is so much work to be done for Oregon’s new women’s club flag football team.

It’s a first-year program, with new coaches, new players, an evolving schedule and no roadmap to follow. More than 60 students showed up for tryouts last month, and only about half of them had football experience.

“But they’re such good athletes that I can work with it,” UO offensive coordinator Chris Rohaley said.

The Ducks selected 22 players, with eight alternates for the inaugural roster. They showed up at the turf fields behind Hayward Field on Monday, Nov. 2, ready to start building the program’s foundation on the field.

But before the first practice could begin, head coach Scott Feldman had to acknowledge the work already put in.

Over the last year, now-sophomore and club president Zoey Ceman spent countless hours meeting with UO club sports officials, holding Zoom calls with NFL personnel, finding potential opponents and interviewing prospective coaches.

Nobody had waited for that first practice with more anticipation than her. And when she arrived, Feldman congratulated her for making it happen.

“Oh my gosh, that was so rewarding,” Ceman said. “It’s so crazy to see it come full circle because I’ve been working on it since last fall.”

It’s been a yearlong process propelled by a lifelong love of the game.

Ceman grew up playing flag football in Southern California, first joining a boys team in seventh grade before helping organize a girls team the following year. At Woodbridge High School in Irvine, she watched the sport grow from a club activity into a sanctioned high school sport.

She played wide receiver, outside linebacker and rusher, and had offers to play in college at smaller schools. But Ceman wanted to attend Oregon, drawn by its sports business program and culture.

It was the perfect school.

Well, almost.

Convincing skeptical administrators

Oregon needed some women’s football culture.

Ceman figured there’d never been a better time to start changing that.

Flag football is one of the fastest-growing sports in the country, a movement that reached Oregon last month when the Oregon School Activities Association, which governs high school sports, voted to sanction the sport on Oct. 12. 

The University of Oregon has more than 24,000 students, including many accomplished high school athletes. Numbers wouldn’t be the issue.

But convincing Oregon’s club sports administrators proved more complicated than Ceman anticipated. With no other collegiate women’s club flag football programs in the Pacific Northwest, officials questioned whether there would be enough competition to make a team sustainable.

So Ceman started looking for answers.

She reached out to former high school teammates who had helped establish programs at UCLA and Cal, then began contacting anyone she thought might be able to help. A connection at Nike put her in touch with an NFL employee, who introduced her to other NFL personnel.

Before long, Ceman was holding Zoom meetings with people around the country, compiling lists of potential sponsors and future opponents, and collecting tips on how to make the program sustainable beyond just for her time in college.

“It was a scavenger hunt to say the least,” she said.

Finding volunteer coaches

The information she gathered was finally enough to convince UO club sports officials to give the program a chance. Then came the daunting part: interviewing coaches.

“I was terrified,” Ceman said. “I was like, oh my gosh, these grown adults talking to this 19-year-old.”

Ceman and her best friend, Sophia Ramms, now the club’s vice president, spent the summer sending emails, joining Zoom calls and meeting with prospective coaches once they returned to campus.

Some candidates wanted salaries or assurances of future jobs if Oregon eventually elevated the program to varsity status.

At one point, Ceman worried that she and Ramms might have to coach the team themselves.

Eventually, the Ducks found a group of local coaches willing to volunteer their time.

“The club had reached out to every athletic director in the county looking for coaches,” Feldman said.

When his athletic director contacted him, the message was simple: “This is going to be right up your alley.”

Feldman coaches football and flag football at North Eugene High School, and made a series of hires that included Rohaley, his offensive coordinator who helped start the flag football program at Sheldon.

It’s a different game, and so are the athletes, both coaches said.

“Women tend to learn a lot quicker in high school and early college years than men,” Feldman said. “So we have to adapt our schedule. When I go to a practice, I have a practice plan and we’re through that and still have more time left.”

And oh, do they need the practice.

The Ducks spent their first practice mainly trying to figure out where their players fit on the field.

Feldman wants to build an aggressive defense that brings pressure. Rohaley, meanwhile, is tasked with installing an entire offense, teaching some players the fundamentals of football while figuring out how to best use their athleticism.

It’s a lot to figure out before the Ducks face an opponent. 

Oregon is scheduled to make its competitive debut at a January tournament in Boise before beginning play in February in a new national women’s club flag football league organized by the National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association (NIRSA). The league has 88 teams across 10 regional divisions, and Oregon is scheduled for eight league games, including trips to Sacramento and Reno.

Feldman has even bigger aspirations. He hopes Oregon can establish itself as a varsity program within two years, potentially offering scholarships and competing at the NCAA level.

But before any of that, there’s a football team to build. And after spending a year just trying to get that team onto the field, Ceman can finally enjoy the part she loves most.

“Honestly, for me, it’s just competition,” she said. “I think it’s so fun, and football is so unique in a way where you can sort of show your personality on the field, like something simple like touchdown celebrations, or in between each play, everybody comes together in huddles and they have their own conversations. I wouldn’t have it (any) other way.”