Fortaleza Tritões Flag women’s team will compete in national final
Considered a “cousin” of traditional American football, Flag Football has been gaining notoriety in the sporting world, including in Brazil. Much of this is due to the fact that the sport will be present as a debutant at the 2028 Olympics, which will be held in Los Angeles, in the United States.
Almost 10 thousand kilometers away from the North American state of California, a team from Ceará stands out on the national scene: Fortaleza Tritões Flag. The women’s team is preparing to compete in the SuperFinal of the Copa do Brasil, which will take place in Manaus (AM), between November 30th and December 1st.
O Sports THE PEOPLE spoke exclusively with player Carolina Pequeno, who spoke about her beginnings in the sport, still new to the Brazilian scene. “I’m heavily involved in sports. Previously, I played handball and volleyball.”
“Over time, I started looking for a completely new and different modality from the ‘conventional’ ones. So, a friend invited me to the selective, in which I stood out for my speed, body control and passed. It really was learning from scratch, which It made me more interested and motivated,” he recalled.
In Carol’s view, an important step towards the dissemination of Flag Football, including in Ceará, would be to include the practice or share the theoretical part in educational institutions. “As it is a new sport in Brazil, I noticed that, for example, it is not in the curriculum of undergraduate Physical Education courses, consequently students don’t see it at school. We already grow up with a minimum base on all other sports” , he pondered.
Regarding the championship dispute in Manaus, the Fortaleza Tritões Flag athlete recalled the campaign until reaching the moment of qualifying for the final. “Along the way, what stood out most was the persistence of all the girls, the way we helped each other to reach a good level to compete, every time we got together to study the opponent, the support, the partnership”, Carol pointed out.
The lack of propagation of Flag Football ends up generating negative consequences. Fortaleza Tritões is looking for support to pay for the trip to the national event. This obstacle, however, does not demotivate the players.
“We are developing positive interdependence based on individual responsibility, exercising social skills so that we are physically and mentally ready to compete in Manaus. Every day we talk and emphasize that ‘yes, we are going to Manaus’. We joke, we smile, we we hugged and continued the fight”, concluded Carol Pequeno.
